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Verstappen okay if Honda engine blows up

14:10, 18 Dec 2018

byBevan Youl

Max Verstappen has said that he won’t mind if the Honda engine blows up, as long as he he is either performing well or winning races.

Red Bull will be running with a different engine supplier in Honda next year, after parting ways with Renault, having ran the engine in it’s junior team Toro Rosso in 2018.

There were concerns as to whether this would be the right move for Red Bull. Due to Toro Rosso finishing with the highest number of grid penalties this season, and Mclaren’s struggles with the engine supplier before they switched to Renault.

Verstappen isn’t concerned and is looking forward to the change.

“I think this year has already been pretty good. They have taken a lot of engines just because they could because they were at the back or something happened,” he said to Sky F1.

“I prefer, maybe, to win a race and then blow up in one than be consistently slow.”

The team are hoping that the switch in engines will put them on the same level as Mercedes and Ferrari. The dutchman said “It all looks very promising but I want to be realistic.”

“First, we still need to build a car, and then the engine should be reliable as well, and powerful.”