Honda’s new partnership with Red Bull in Formula 1 does not bring added pressure for the manufacturer, according to the marque’s Technical Director Toyoharu Tanabe.
Honda returned to Formula 1 in 2015 but struggled during its three-year relationship with McLaren, before linking up with Toro Rosso for 2018.
It demonstrated its progress through the year – both in terms of performance and reliability – prompting Red Bull to sever its 12-year partnership with Renault and align with Honda for 2019.
Red Bull won four Grands Prix in 2018 and has outlined its desire to contend for world titles long-term, but Tanabe insists the new partnership is no added stress for the manufacturer.
“Honestly, it has not changed,” Tanabe said of the pressure.
“Over the course of the period, the manufacturer has supplied to Toro Rosso and to both teams it has been the same: the desire and the target.
“Of course, we respect the Red Bull results over the past few years, and of course there is pressure, but we want to supply high performance, which is always our target, so there is not much change.
“Once we participate in a race as Honda, not only in Formula 1 but all racing, winning is our aim, our target, but at this stage, it is very hard to tell what will happen this year.
“Of course our target for both teams will be to improve and we want to get better results than last year for both teams.”
On Honda’s progress over the winter, Tanabe commented: “We worked on the 2019 PU not only the performance but also reliability. We believe we improved both.
“Then the development area is not only a single part, so we reviewed every part and improved performance and reliability.”
