Belgian Grand Prix – Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says the team reverted to old spec Honda units for the race in Belgium.
Speaking after the race in Belgium, in which Red Bull’s best finish was a P5 with Alex Albon after a first lap crash for Max Verstappen, team boss Christian Horner explained the team had reverted to older spec engines after Friday’s practice.
Alex Albon took a grid penalty as a result of running a brand new Honda power unit during Friday practice, this being the latest Specification 4 made available by Honda. Max Verstappen didn’t take a new power unit, meaning his weekend wasn’t compromised by a penalty.
However, Horner explained that his drivers had, instead, raced with an older Spec 2 engine – Verstappen using the same engine he used last time out in Budapest, while Albon used an engine that had been previously used by Pierre Gasly before the team switched drivers.
“Neither driver raced the Spec 4 engine this weekend [in Belgium].” explained Horner “We took a penalty with Alex [Albon] on Friday, but both drivers ended up racing the Spec 2 engine. Unfortunately, Max’s race didn’t get further than the first corner. It’s encouraging though, the data we saw from Friday with [Daniil] Kvyat running the new engine. Progress is being made and in line with what has been expected.”
With Verstappen encountering various power issues throughout practice and almost ruining his qualifying when it cropped up again during Q1, Horner explained that the engine’s mileage meant that it was being run very conservatively: “We ran this engine very aggressively in previous races, especially in Budapest as we tried to get the race win! We couldn’t run the engine aggressively in performance modes as previously and that’s just down to the mileage and how hard it’s been run.”
With Albon likely to use the introduced Spec 4 this weekend at Monza that he used in Friday practice at Spa, he can now take that engine without penalty. Verstappen, should he be fitted with the new spec Honda unit, will face a grid penalty. Horner says the decision will be made shortly as to what to do and whether to sacrifice a stronger grid slot: “Most likely – we’ll make that decision during the week. We’ll discuss with Honda and see what their thoughts are.”
