Honda sees own work paid for in Monaco: 'We improved that'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
For Honda the Monaco Grand Prix was a very special one. Together with Red Bull Racing they now lead the constructors' championship and Max Verstappen has taken over the lead in the drivers' classification. In Monaco, the start was very important and with Charles Leclerc dropping out, the way was clear to first place. At Honda the focus was on the start all weekend.
"The conditions were good on Sunday," Toyoharu Tanabe explained in conversation with AS-web. Due to a crash at the end of FP2 and FP3, the teams and drivers had little opportunity to practice the starts. These happen in Monaco after the end of each practice session, because there is no room for it at the pit exit. For Honda this was also an extra challenge, because they have no data to analyse about the starts.
Ideal line towards the first turn
"We had to use what we already had, like the data from this year so far and the methods we have already improved this year." Verstappen was also off to a good start in Monaco, although he did have to get his Red Bull in front of that of Valtteri Bottas, who had a faster start.
Verstappen kept the Finn behind him, however, and was able to maintain his lead from F1. Charles Leclerc looked to be a challenge for the Dutchman from pole position, but the Ferrari driver dropped out before the start, leaving the way clear for the Red Bull driver towards the first corner.
"The ideal way to go towards the first corner is to go in the way you want to, not having to look at the start of others," said Tanabe.