The Head of Honda’s Formula 1 program, Yusuke Hasegawa has admitted he was surprised by Sauber canceling their contract with the Japanese manufacturer for engines from 2018.
In May, the Swiss team confirmed speculation that they would be ending a 20-year partnership with Ferrari to become the first customer team of Honda, who are in a partnership with McLaren.
A disagreement between owners Longbow Finance and then team boss Monisha Kaltenborn, who had agreed on the deal saw the latter leave her position and replaced by former Renault team boss Fred Vasseur.
His first announcement in the role was to confirm the Honda switch was off and later reveal a multi-year continuation with Ferrari.
“I wasn’t in the meetings, that was [Honda Managing Director Masashi] Yamamoto-san,” Hasegawa revealed talking to RACER magazine this week.
His surprise at the cancellation also came despite being good friends with Sauber Technical Chief Jorg Zander.
“Zander and I were in very good communication all the time,” he said. “We both didn’t believe that we would have to stop this collaboration until the final moment.”
The decision by Sauber has had an impact on Honda’s plans going forward both in developing their struggling power unit and that changes to be ready for a bigger operation were already underway.
“Of course it is very disappointing,” Hasegawa admitted. “It is a customer team program so it doesn’t hurt our program very much but we still expected to get the opportunity to get our engine running more.
“We would have got more data and been able to make comparisons, so it is very disappointing. More than that, on the practical side, we had to stop the preparation,” he pointed out. “So it is very bad.”
Recently talks had taken place between Honda and Red Bull over a potential Toro Rosso supply deal, it was reported on Thursday, however, they had failed to end in agreement meaning McLaren look set to remain the only team using their engines next season.