Honda: "First win Verstappen has given everyone even more motivation"

"It was fantastic to take our first win of the season in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix last Sunday at Silverstone with Max Verstappen and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing", Honda looks back briefly on last weekend at Silverstone. With the Japanese the victory of Verstappen has at least had a positive influence. "It has given everyone at Honda even more motivation for the rest of this season."

Different circumstances than usual

There wasn't much time to celebrate for Honda, because the Grand Prix of Spain means the end of the second triple header of the year. "We head straight to Spain for the last race of this triple-header which means we had no time to celebrate the win in what is quite a tough schedule for everyone", said Tanabe. "We completed a lot of laps with our two teams back in February at the Barcelona track, but we know we will now face much higher air and track temperatures than during winter testing and the conditions will also be very different to those we usually experience at this race when it is run in springtime."

In Barcelona, Honda has enough dates available to achieve a good performance. "For this weekend, when it comes to optimising our PU, we can rely on data from the past five races, as well as that from the February test here. Last week’s result shows that when everything comes together - the driver’s confidence in the car, the PU, the chassis and strategy - we can win."

Honda expects tough weekend

However, Tanabe remains realistic and states that in principle Mercedes still has the fastest car and engine. "However, it does not mean we have closed the gap to the championship leader in terms of pure performance. Therefore, this will be another tough weekend, but as usual we will pushing hard to get the best possible result with all four drivers", he concludes.