’No concerns’ about Honda switch - Verstappen

Max Verstappen sounds enthused about Red Bull’s Honda-powered future.

That is despite the fact that many in the paddock are wondering why a top team would sign up with a Japanese manufacturer whose recent three-year collaboration with McLaren failed so badly.

"Yes I’m surprised," said Sergio Perez in France. "I didn’t really think Honda had a good engine."

Verstappen, however, appears to know otherwise.

"I was in Japan last year," he told Speed Week. "The engine factory is really great and it was interesting to see how Renault and Honda differ."

Red Bull’s often tetchy relationship with Renault is finally ending at the end of the year.

Franz Tost, the team boss at Toro Rosso, says he has no regrets about making the switch last year.

"We are talking about a completely different cooperation," he said.

"We were customers and sometimes the parts in the box seemed so old that they seemed to come out of a dumpster. Thank God that’s not the case with Honda."

And so Dutchman Verstappen says he is not worried about being Honda powered from 2019.

"I don’t see any reason for concern," he said.

"Take a look at the progress with Honda this year. In Canada there was another big step forward. That really looks very positive.

"I believe in Honda, and obviously my team believes in Honda, otherwise they would not have signed a two-year contract," Verstappen added.