Max Verstappen has heaped praise on Honda for their performance during pre-season testing.
Though the Dutchman endured a tough final day, resulting from damage caused by Pierre Gasly a day earlier, the Japanese power unit was the star for Red Bull running very reliably over the eight days.
“So far I’m really happy with the cooperation between Red Bull and Honda,” Verstappen said.
“They are really working hard and very focused and calm – everything you ask from them, they are working back at the factory to improve so, so far, I’m really happy with it.
“It was always a question mark for many people how it was going to perform, but we saw from the dyno testing and then again here on track, it was very reliable and did exactly what I wanted, so I’m very happy.”
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The unknown, however, is just how competitive the new partnership will be, as Gasly sat eight-tenths off the pace on Thursday and Verstappen was unable to complete a lower fuel lap on the C5 Pirelli tyres.
Estimates believe Red Bull could be around Mercedes and a few tenths off Ferrari but that doesn’t concern Max at this point.
“I’m not too worried about it. For sure, they are very quick, but I’m happy with what we have done so far,” he commented.
“The long-run pace is very promising, of course, Melbourne is a different track with different temperatures and will be again about finding a good set-up in the car. It’s a long season.”
As for whether victory was possible at Albert Park, Verstappen responded: “We’ll see on Saturday. Hopefully, on Sunday we’ll be there.
“If we look to the longer runs, it looks all pretty promising, so yeah, I’m looking forward to starting racing now.”
