F1 News
Honda want to "rest body and soul" ahead of second half
- GPblog.com
Following the high-profile race in England two weeks prior, the Hungarian Grand Prix was again not a happy one for Max Verstappen and his Red Bull Racing team. An enormous error by Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas meant the Dutchman had to resume the race with significant damage, while Sergio Perez was unable to appear at the restart at all.
Not much pace
After Verstappen already had to have a power unit replaced following his collision with Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone, it is now Perez who can write off an engine following the incident with Bottas. Speaking to Japan's Autosport Web, Honda's technical director Toyoji Tanabe says: "The data shows that there is an anomaly and it is quite difficult to continue using the engine."
Whereas Red Bull Racing seemed unstoppable towards the end of the first half of the season, after two catastrophic races they see the team from Mercedes has come back alongside them in both championships. "The team had said they wanted to finish the first half of the season on a high and have a good summer break before going into the second half," said Tanabe. "Both cars were badly damaged. Perez crashed out and Verstappen managed to come back under his own power. We tried to repair as much as possible during the red flag. We didn't have much pace, but we still finished 10th [9th after Vettel's disqualification] and grabbed a few points."
Summer break
The Japanese driver, therefore, indicated that people at Honda had imagined the summer break differently. "For us at Honda it was not a happy ending, but we have two weeks off, which is a bit longer than normal. We will look back on the first half of the season, but we will also rest our bodies and our minds for the second half."