Honda planning steps to avoid title-costing errors for Red Bull

Red Bull

Honda planning steps to avoid title-costing errors for Red Bull

Honda's performance has been key to Red Bull's championship charge

Ewan Gale

Thursday 23 September 2021 09:30

Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe has revealed the Japanese manufacturer will be careful to ensure it is not the reason Red Bull misses out on the title.

Red Bull is 18 points behind Mercedes in the constructors' standings whilst Max Verstappen leads Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship.

Before partnering with Red Bull, Honda was plagued by issues when supplying McLaren with reliability and drivability often bewildering two-time champion Fernando Alonso.

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With a chance at ending Mercedes' domination, Tanabe has outlined how Red Bull's supplier will take steps to ensure races will be completed without error.

"In the last few races, the four cars equipped with Honda PU have not been able to race in a good shape," said Tanabe when previewing the Russian Grand Prix.

"So I hope that this time we will be able to fully demonstrate the performance that the four drivers can have and have a good race.

"Also, as we enter the end of the season from here, we will make careful preparations so that we can maximize our performance and compete in the race without mistakes."

Honda upgrade to achieve "the ultimate goal of defeating Mercedes"

Ahead of this weekend's event in Sochi, Honda F1's head of power unit development Yasuaki Asaki revealed Red Bull had benefitted from an energy store upgrade since the summer break.

“In order to achieve the ultimate goal of defeating Mercedes and winning the championship before leaving F1 at the end of the 2021 season, we recognised the need to enhance performance," explained Asaki.

"As such, the development plan for the new ES was brought forward substantially from the original goal of 2022 to introduction during the 2021 season.”