Verstappen explains Honda's "careful" approach at the start of the 2019 F1 season
F1 News
It's no secret that Max Verstappen and Red Bull have been flying over recent weeks. While they were giving Ferrari a good run for their money on most tracks, it wasn't until Austria when Verstappen finally conquered Mercedes.
From that point onwards, the battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton has been close and it produced an exciting race in Hungary. But going back to the start of the season, the RB15 was struggling to find the pace.
The flying Dutchman admitted that Red Bull hadn't got a few things right themselves, but also confirms Honda were playing it carefully to avoid similar problems to their relationship with McLaren.
"Of course I am satisfied. Since we had started a new collaboration with Honda, I was very careful at first. But I knew they were wonderful people and that they would do a good job. On our side, however, we were struggling with minor problems at the beginning. The car didn't do exactly what we wanted to for some reason," Verstappen told Motorsport.com.
"Of course Adrian was on top of it and because of this we had a car very quickly that makes driving a pleasure."
"I had the idea that Honda wanted to prevent engines from breaking, but we're pushing a little harder now and it's still going well. Because of all that negative stuff at McLaren, I think they were a bit careful. And I also think that this was the right approach."
Verstappen looks back to his first race win of the season in Austria. He says this marks a significant moment during his season as the car "came to life" so that they can "finally really push with the car." Since Austria, Verstappen has gone on to win an additional race, qualify on pole for the first time in his career, a P2 and a P5 in Silverstone despite getting rammed into the gravel trap by Sebastian Vettel.