Max Verstappen does not think Red Bull will be able to fight for the title when it makes its switch to Honda power next year.
Verstappen has been driving for Red Bull since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, but despite taking four victories in that time, has not had a car capable of fighting for the championship. The team had been optimistic ahead of its 2018 campaign, but once again the gap in performance between its Renault engine and that of Mercedes and Ferrari has resulted in it coming up short.
Next year Red Bull will switch to Honda in the hope that a close collaboration with the Japanese manufacturer will yield better results than its current customer deal with Renault. But Honda has been off the pace since returning to F1 at the start of 2015 and Verstappen is not expecting it to make a big enough step next year to challenger for titles.
“Everyone wants that, but in Formula One that’s a tricky thing,” he said in an interview on his official website. “At first we will need to take some more steps, but hopefully at the end we will be close. The year after, we should be out in full force.”
Asked if it would be a year of development, Verstappen, who is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2020, said: “I think so, but in a positive way. We will in any case know what we will be getting and which steps are being taken.”
This year Honda has improved on the shocking reliability record of its first three seasons back in F1 with McLaren and Verstappen believes they are taking the right approach to make further progress.
“Looking at where they came from the last couple of years, they have advanced considerably,” he said. “You very rarely see something get broken. The most important thing is that they want to take things to the limit. They have the means, which is very important if you want to take on the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes.
“All in all, Honda is a much more serious candidate. They have already been on the test rig and want a lot of gearboxes from us to prepare themselves for the coming year. They are enormously driven and want to do thousands of miles on the test rig.”