Results will "encourage" Honda to stay in F1

The programme chiefs are still awaiting a decision on if they will continue beyond the 2020 season.

Honda teamed up with Red Bull as partnership for the 2019 season, and are currently deciding whether they will remain in the sport for next season.

The team won their first race of the season in Austria, Max Verstappen claiming the win, while the 21-year-old also won in Germany as performances on the track got better as the teams headed for the summer break.

The company’s F1 managing director Masashi Yamamoto told Motorsport.com that in terms of the significance of the place and timing for Honda’s first win since returning to F1 in 2015, “maybe the only place it can equal is Suzuka”.

Yamamoto added that what Honda has achieved at this stage of the season is “quite in accordance with my plan, what I had hoped”.

“There is not much we could do more than this,” he said. “What we’ve kept saying is we wanted to exceed last year’s Red Bull result."

Pierre Gasly has largely struggled in his first full season with Red Bull and will be replaced by Alex Albon from the Belgian Grand Prix.

The team are 21 points better off than at this stage last year, largely thanks to the performance of Verstappen.