Red Bull could take their second engine before the Canadian Grand Prix if Honda can guarantee sufficient gains.
Despite some scepticism before the season, the RB15 did prove a match for their top three rivals as Max Verstappen qualified fourth and moved up onto the podium in the race in Australia.
Indeed, double world champion Mika Hakkinen, who questioned Honda in the build-up, heaped praise on the progress Honda has made.
“It has taken four difficult years of development, and the fact that Max Verstappen was able to achieve it by overtaking the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel was pretty special,” he said in his Unibet column.
“It is clear that Red Bull-Honda will be a force in this year’s world championship.”
Also Read:
Honda themselves admitted a sense of relief at their competitiveness, but Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claims more is to come and potentially before Montreal, where suppliers typically bring their first upgrades.
“The best part of the package is the Honda engine,” he was quoted by GPFans.com. “The board, which was in Melbourne, promised us that more power is coming soon.
“If the power increase is significant, we will not wait until the eighth race. We would, in that case, take a penalty for the start of the race.
“It’s then up to us to develop the chassis to catch up with the people ahead of us.”
