Jacques Villeneuve predicts Red Bull's Honda engine will "only last 4 races"
Honda F1 Media
F1 News
Jacques Villeneuve believes that the Honda engine is not capable of doing more than 4 races and is predicting Red Bull to face major grid penalties after the summer break. Honda are reported to be bringing a 25HP upgrade to Monza but the 1997 world champion thinks that this will not help Red Bull in the long run.
"The Honda engine only lasts three or four races. That is why they suddenly have so much power: They are not trying to complete seven races with the same engine. If Mercedes and Ferrari were to use the same tactics, they would have thirty HP more than Honda at the moment," says the Canadian at Motorsport-Magazin.
Red Bull will have a dilemma if Villeneuve's thoughts are true. If they do put a new engine on the RB15 in Italy, then that engine should go eight Grands Prix's. If it doesn't last that long they could fall back on their older specification engine for the last few races.
Another option is to collect a grid penalty later on in the season at a circuit where overtaking is easier.
Honda will want a strong performance at their home Japanese Grand Prix and the race after that is the Mexican Grand Prix, a circuit that Red Bull traditionally perform well at. They could then take a grid penalty at the American Grand Prix and replace their engine ready to perform at full throttle in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
However, according to Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko, this will not be necessary. When asked about his opinion on what Villeneuve said, the Austrian dismissed it as "nonsense."