Red Bull Racing Believes ‘Nobody Can Keep Up’ with Honda’s F1 Resources
Dr. Helmut Marko
Photo: Heimo Ruschitz
Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has big hopes for the team’s future in Formula One now that it has partnered with Honda, stating that the company’s research and development resources are such that “nobody can keep up.”
Honda struggled when it first rejoined F1 in 2015, but since the start of the 2018 season and of its partnership with Red Bull sister team Toro Rosso, there has been a lot of optimism about the Japanese manufacturer’s ability to catch up.
“With Toro Rosso everything is working perfectly,” Marko said in an interview with Austria’s Servus TV. “Next year Honda will make a much bigger effort. They have a development center in Sakura which nobody can keep up with.”
When asked why Marko believed Red Bull would have more success with Honda than McLaren was able to manage, he suggested that the British outfit did not have the right approach.
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“The Japanese have a different culture and a different way of working. You learn that over time. Our approach with Honda is different than McLaren’s. They were telling them how they wanted the engine to be built. We just say ‘Build the fastest engine possible for us, then we will try to fit in into the chassis.’ We don’t have any demands. We discuss everything together.”
He went on to confirm what is already known: a part of the decision to switch to Honda had to do with Red Bull’s loss of faith in Renault to catch up to its competitors. And despite its struggles with McLaren, it still believes Honda’s F1 resources will allow it to do what Renault could not.
“Honda is a partner who is committed, has the financial and technical resources and we are the number one team for them,” Marko said. “The performance of Toro Rosso is showing that they are clearly making progress. I am sure that next year we are going to be far ahead of Renault.”
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