“We have the feeling that Honda has taken a step backwards”– Mercedes believes an FIA directive ‘weakened’ F1 engine

“We have the feeling that Honda has taken a step backwards”– Mercedes believes that the FIA directive has apparently weakened Honda’s engine.

Mercedes has gained massively over Red Bull in the last two races; the Brackley based team looks sharp after installing the declared upgrades in their W12 ahead of the race in Silverstone.

Meanwhile, back to back debacles by Red Bull has forced Mercedes to believe that an FIA directive has apparently forced Honda to take a step backwards in their power unit.

“We have the feeling that Honda has taken a step backwards. Everything is exhausted with our engine,” Mercedes reportedly said in Hungary, according to Auto Motor Und Sports.

Though there has been no official declaration about it, the report by AMuS claims that it “doesn’t mean much as corrections to the engine are usually not made public.”

“The technical representatives of the governing body discuss them directly with the manufacturer. Not even the competition finds out about it,” added AMuS‘ report.

Report: No such directive was made.

However, a report by RacingNews365 claims that upon inquiring with Honda, the Japanese manufacturers have revealed no such technical directive has been imposed.

And even if usually technical directives are not made public, they are at least notified to the rest of the teams. On the other hand, Red Bull speculates that the sudden surge of pace in Hamilton’s car is because of the improvements to its cooling system.

The rumour arose when Hamilton managed to gain over Verstappen on the stretch ahead of Copse Corner. But Mercedes is denying the conjecture and insists that now the cooling ploy has been played by them.

And explained the Briton’s gain by Honda’s unit going into charging mode at that point of the track. Nevertheless, both teams would return to vie against each other in Spa at the end of this month.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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