30 Jun 2019 ID: 185165
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First Win for Honda F1 in the Hybrid PU Era

First Win for Honda F1 in the Hybrid PU Era

On June 30, 2019, driving for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing in a car using Honda’s RA619H Power Unit, Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix. This is Honda’s 73rd win in Formula One, the first since the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix and also the first in the current hybrid power unit era.

Starting from second place, Max had a difficult start and dropped to seventh, one position ahead of Pierre. The two ran in tandem through the early laps before Max started making progress, overtaking Lando Norris and Kimi Raikkonen to move into the top five.

A long first stint saw Max lead for a spell, and after pitting for hard tyres on lap 31 - later than his rivals ahead - he rejoined in fourth place ahead of Lewis Hamilton. From there, Max was on a charge and fought his way past Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas to run second, before hunting down Charles Leclerc.

A thrilling battle saw the pair go wheel-to-wheel, with Max finally taking the lead with three laps remaining and achieving our first victory with Red Bull. Pierre’s first stop came earlier in the race, as he stopped on lap 25 and was unable make up any places through strategy. He found his way ahead of Kimi Raikkonen but was then sandwiched between the two McLarens, still picking up six points with seventh place.

Takahiro Hachigo, Chief Executive Officer, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

- For the people and parties who have supported us in this project

“It is a great pleasure for us to win once more in Formula One, especially because getting to this point has not been straightforward since our return to the sport in 2015. First of all, I would like to thank Max and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing for this victory. Of course, we must also thank Scuderia Toro Rosso and all the drivers who have given so much support to the project, as well as all the suppliers and related parties.

- And thanks also to all our fans
“I want to thank all our fans. With their support, we will keep challenging as we strive towards our ultimate goal, which is to win the world championship, taking this victory as a first step. Any future success we have is also thanks to our fans who are really a part of our team.”

- We must keep challenging to achieve our goal
“Formula One was our founder Soichiro Honda’s dream and it is in our company’s DNA. We went through some tough times over the past five years on the race tracks and in the factory. I am speechless when I think about the enormous effort from all the Honda staff involved in this project, who always believed in themselves and never gave up and finally reached today’s victory. I think this embodies our ‘Power of Dreams’ motto.”

 

Toyoharu Tanabe, Technical Director, Honda Racing F1

"Thanks to the efforts of all the Honda F1 staff in Japan and the UK, who worked tirelessly on our PU development, we finally made it, our first win in the hybrid era, the first since Hungary 2006. And a special word of thanks to all their families who supported them. Thanks of course to Max for a great drive and to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing for providing him with a fantastic car. We must not forget the great contribution made by Scuderia Toro Rosso, who helped us get back on the right path last year. Honda has not done this alone and so we want to acknowledge the contribution of our outside suppliers. This win is also a way of saying thank you to all our fans, all over the world, for their continued support. We have been back in this sport since 2015, but today feels like a new beginning. While we can enjoy the celebrations for a short while, we must get back to work as soon as possible, because we still need to close our performance gap to the quickest teams."

 

Max Verstappen, winner

"It was an incredible race and I’m so happy to take the Team’s second victory at our home Grand Prix. Let me start by saying that Honda powered us to a win today! It was a shame at the start as I triggered anti-stall and dropped back to seventh. From there onwards the pace was really good, I stayed calm and kept pushing hard. The second stint was decisive for us as the car really came alive. Once I passed Valtteri I thought I could have a go for the win as our pace was so strong but you never know. I just kept pushing, drove flat out and didn’t give up. We passed Charles with a few laps to go so I’m extremely happy. The move was close racing and if you can’t make moves like that I think it is better to stay at home. I want to say a big thank you to everyone at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, all weekend we have been working really well and the upgrades seem to have worked. Thank you to all the crew here, everyone at the factory and of course Honda, it’s not been easy for them over the past years but to win for them today is just incredible."

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