Horner: Incidents in a cost cap environment "are very brutal"

Cruel Weekends

In Hungary, Honda replaced Verstappen's engine after his heavy crash at Silverstone, and after the clumsy crash caused by Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez's Honda power unit is also likely to need replacing. F1.com then asks team principal Christian Horner about how likely it is that his team will get through the season without grid penalties. "Very small I'm afraid, and that's hugely frustrating for Honda, because it's not due to reliability. It's due to accidents that we didn't cause ourselves, so they're feeling the blow there, as are we on the chassis side and it's not to be underestimated on the cost side."

Horner is therefore far from happy with what happened in England and Hungary. "It does need to be looked at because in a budget cap environment the incidents we've had in the last few weeks are very brutal. We have a mountain of accident damage and possibly two lost engines at the hands of other drivers," he said after the race at the Hungaroring. "So yes, very frustrating."

Battle is not over yet

"We've had a huge amount of bad luck in the last few races, it's been pretty tough in parts, in damage, in engines. But we will pull ourselves together and in the second half of the championship we will fight, because obviously it has been a tough couple of weekends. But things can change very quickly as we have seen in recent weeks and there is still a long way to go in this championship," Horner concluded.