“The most important thing is communication”– Honda reveals how they delivered a championship to Red Bull

Tanish Chachra | 25/01/2022
"The most important thing is communication"– Honda reveals how they delivered a championship to Red Bull

Red Bull, after eight years, won its first drivers’ championship with Max Verstappen and massive credits go to Honda for a powerful engine.

Max Verstappen won his first championship with Red Bull in 2021. For this day, Red Bull waited long eight years and tolerated the never-ending Mercedes’ dominance, which is still present, as the Brackley based team won the other championship in 2021.

However, Honda did whatever it could and vested all its energy for 2021, especially when it was announced to be their last season in F1, amidst a change in its policy.

Now, Honda’s F1 boss Toyoharu Tanabe reveals how they led Verstappen to the pinnacle of the sport with Red Bull. Moreover, leaving away a powerful engine until the next power unit regulations.

“The most important thing is communication,” Tanabe told RacingNews365.com. “Our desire is the same [as it was] to win races and win the championship. How [do we] achieve our purpose or desire? The key is to make a high-performance car as a package.

“We discussed a lot what we wanted to do with each other and then made a compromised decision to make the car fast. “We know each other very much, so it was very open-minded [and] a very detailed discussion.”

“That discussion and then communication makes us a strong, kind of one team.”

Also read: Honda boss claims Japanese manufacturer left Formula 1 too early

Max Verstappen also invested his time with Honda

Besides technical excellence, Tanabe credits Verstappen’s talent and determination to succeed. Thus, Red Bull managed to pose a consistent challenge to Mercedes this year.

“I think he has a talent, he has a skill, to drive the car fast,” continued Tanabe. “Not only fast, but also as a kind of sensor, a human sensor; he is compassionate, and the feedback is exact.”

“For the engine condition, he realises very small sounds or feelings – he could tell us very small things. His feedback and kind of testing was very useful for us.”

Also read: Former F1 Champion feels Red Bull glory was the perfect way for Honda to sign off from the sport

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Honda Max Verstappen Red Bull

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.

Don’t miss these