It seems, judging from the last Austrian Grand Prix, that Mercedes has regained its dominance in terms of power units in F1 – even if Honda and especially Renault, with the podium of Lando Norris, did not deserve.
Mercedes however swore to have focused on reliability in Austria, bringing a new development in this direction. Honda, which was the only other engine manufacturer to bring an advanced engine from Melbourne, says today that it has been ” surprised “ by the progression brought about by this last evolution – implied, it was not only focused on reliability.
Masashi Yamamoto, the general manager of Honda, repeated that he was shocked by the performance of the German power unit.
“In free practice, we saw what we expected from the test bench, especially on the long stints. “
“So everything went as planned, but we were surprised by the progress Mercedes has made, especially in qualifying, and so we were a little surprised at the distance we had compared to them. “
Now that the engines are frozen, how is Honda going to progress and catch up with Mercedes this year for Yamamoto?
“We will work on reliability if we think it is necessary, but since we cannot do anything on performance, we are now focusing our development on the 2021 powertrain, and it is the same for everyone. “
“This is the attitude that we will adopt from now on. After finishing the first Grand Prix, we of course noticed some problems, notably our performance during the qualifications, which we have to try to improve in one way or another within the framework of the regulations. “
“But we have seen a good performance in the race and we think we can compete with Mercedes, so we just want to keep facing them constantly this season, that’s our goal. “
The first Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, also noticed the damage…
“I think we have made great strides forward, but it is clear that Mercedes has made greater strides than we have. “
“We have to keep pushing. There’s still performance to be had, not only from the engine, but also from the car, so we just have to push on both sides to get better. But it is clear that Mercedes did a very good job during the winter. “
Max Verstappen knows where to progress, to gain top speed in straight lines, as in speed when cornering: the balance and stability of Red Bull.
“If you look at the data, there aren’t a lot of corners where we’re slower than the Mercedes. “
“I think on most of them we were faster, but I was not really happy with the balance in the whole turn, so the entry in the middle of the turn, you have a little confidence for push at high speed. “
“We just have to figure out how to make the car a little more balanced, and then I’m sure we can be closer. “
“I am not saying that we will beat them in qualifying, but if we can be two or three tenths in qualifying, then the race will definitely be much more contested. “
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