Verstappen: Honda still scarred by McLaren misery

Max Verstappen says Honda's efforts alongside Red Bull in 2019 remain coloured by their dreadful three-year run with McLaren, but hopes successes before the summer break can help turn the page.

Red Bull and Verstappen's season took a sharp upturn at the Austrian Grand Prix, when a new front wing and extra power from Honda helped the Dutchman win at the Red Bull Ring for a second year in succession.

Since then, Verstappen has seen a podium at Silverstone taken from him by a crash with Sebastian Vettel, another victory come his way in Germany and Lewis Hamilton snatch a third win of the season from him at the last in Hungary.

Verstappen says the aerodynamic tweaks designed by Adrian Newey for Spielberg helped get more out of the team's new power unit, with Honda subsequently able to push on and forget their McLaren misery.

"We started to get more out of the engine from that moment on," Verstappen told Motorsport.com.

"I thought Honda wanted to prevent engines from breaking. But we are pushing a little harder now and it is still going well.

"The engine is running well, everything is running well.

"But because of all the negative stuff that they experienced at McLaren, with all those engines being blown up, I think they were a bit careful.

"However, I think this has been the right approach."

He added: "We continued to work hard and the factory also pushed hard to get new parts onto the car as quickly as possible.

"Of course Adrian was on top of it and because of this we had a very fast car that made driving a pleasure.

"From Austria, where we have brought a few new parts to the car that seem to have turned things around, we can finally really push the car."

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