Honda has revealed that they have put countermeasures in place for Styrian GP after both Red Bull Racing cars faced issues in F1 Austrian GP.
While Max Verstappen came to a sad halt early in the F1 Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring, Alexander Albon came to a sorry end after his tussle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. The former was said to be an electrical issue, while the latter was still being investigated.
With days gone as F1 teams get ready for this weekend’s Styrian GP, Honda has revealed that both cars had electrical issue albeit caused by different components. It is still not clear if the fight with Hamilton contributed in the part to be stressed out in Albon’s case.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s race at the same venue, Honda has stated that they have put countermeasures in place to rectify the issues and that both Verstappen and Albon will use the same power unit as the first race of the 2020 F1 season.
“Although we had a tough race, it was great for Formula 1 that racing returned last weekend and that all the safety procedures put in place resulted in everything running smoothly and safely,” said Honda F1 chief Toyoharu Tanabe.
“This weekend, we race at the same track – the first time this has happened in the championship’s history. It means that our data is up to date and relevant, although one factor that could affect our work is the forecast for rain and even thunderstorms over the coming weekend.
“The problems on the two Aston Martin Red Bull Racing cars in the last race were both electrical, but caused by different issues. We have been analysing both these matters together with the teams and we have put countermeasures in place for this weekend.
“As our power units do not have any damage caused by those issues, Max and Alex will use their same PU’s this weekend. This weekend, we must aim to finish the race with all four cars and achieve a good result with them.”
Red Bull chief Christian Horner had said that the parts they were concerned with from the F1 weekend, were sent back to base at Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom and some of it flown back to Sakura base in Japan – for engineers to get a look in.
Honda follows up Mercedes and Ferrari in stating about changes they are bringing for this weekend’s F1 race. Renault, meanwhile, had cooling issues with Daniel Ricciardo but hasn’t so far publicly acknowledged if they have some rectification done.
Elsewhere, Horner also pointed out the difference in media perception about incidents, where he stated that Hamilton’s mishaps often gets overlooked against the likes of Verstappen. “I saw Alex at dinner on Sunday night after the race and you could see the result hurt, but when I caught up with him again on Monday, he already had his tail up and is looking forward to this weekend.
“Alex was cruelly robbed of a podium and possibly even a victory. It was a slam dunk. We had a tyre that was probably 1.2 seconds a lap quicker than Mercedes were capable of going at that stage in the race. Alex knew they would have problems warming their older tyres, so he needed to get the job done on Lewis quickly.
“He made his move, went around the outside and got himself ahead of Lewis mid-corner and then contact was made and Alex was in the gravel. He later retired from the race but the incident was particularly frustrating at our home event when we had a good chance of making it three wins in a row.
“Lewis was penalised and, I am sure if the shoe was on the other foot, then there would be plenty of media criticism, as Max has experienced in the past, but as a six-time world champion I guess these mis-judgements are sometimes overlooked,” summed up Horner.
Here’s information from Mercedes about their work
Here’s information from Ferrari about their work
Here’s Christian Horner, Max Verstappen on ServusTV show
Here’s whole lot from Red Bull and Mercedes on incident
