Christian Horner and Max Verstappen reckon Red Bull Racing can see-through the 2020 F1 season on three Honda engines and will not need a fourth or more.
While they used more than three power units in the 2019 F1 season, Red Bull are optimistic in that they hope to only require three Honda units in the upcoming 2020 season, as that is the maximum allocated before penalties begin to come into the picture.
Last year, they looked for performance and so they pushed AlphaTauri as well as Red Bull with more than three power units. While the plan is not to have a fourth unit but if it so happens then Horner isn’t wildly concerned with the prospect.
He feels that the team can find the optimal time to stomach the penalty. For this reason, Horner says Honda will be focusing to eke out as much performance. “We’re not planning a fourth engine at the moment,” said Horner. “The plan is to go through on the three.
“If it becomes 21 races, that obviously makes life slightly easier. If we were to have to take a fourth, so long as you take it at the right place you can minimise the impact of that. So, we’d always chase performance over everything else.”
In sync with Horner, Verstappen echoed what his boss had to say. The Dutchman was positive in a similar fashion and he also discussed the performance of the unit, as well as the progress made by the Japanese manufacturer in two years time.
“Last year, we only took engines because they had performance upgrades,” said Verstappen to media including FormulaRapida.net. “And it were quite big ones. So that was the reason for us to take those engines.
“And of course, this year we know that we try to of course not take any any penalties, but so far the engine, it’s running very smooth. And so looking good. In terms of mileage it’s all going well. I think we’ve all been trying to look into making it to those seven weekends.
“I think we haven’t run full power modes, but so far everything is running smooth. And that’s exactly what you want. They’re [Honda are] pushing flat out. And, of course, you always want improvements, which definitely have been made compared to last year.
“What I like is, what they show you, what they project, what is coming is always happening. So I’m very confident that it will be the same this year again. Everything is heading into the right direction. But the other ones they are also pushing flat out,” summed up Verstappen.
In terms of laps, Red Bull completed 471 in the first test while AlphaTauri did 383 to make it 854, which was 53 more than what Renault did, with the same two F1 teams. It has been a good start reliability wise for Honda but second test will be crucial too.
Here’s the details from first F1 test
The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani