The violence of the impact of Verstappen against the pile of tires set off all the alarms, fearing to find a car turned into a paperweight, but the head of Honda’s technical department does not give up the engine for lost.
The tremendous anger of the Red Bull men after witnessing the tremendous accident of 51G who suffered his first sword at the Silverstone circuit were caused by, in addition to a ‘zero’ that balances the World Championship again when the difference between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton was 33 points and has been reduced to just 8, the consequences that such a high-speed impact can cause against the protections.
Although Michael Masi has emphasized that the FIA value the incident itself, and not the consequences of it, the truth is that a premature change of components in the power unit of the # 33 seems like a synonym of guaranteed future penalty: Verstappen is currently using his second ICE (internal combustion engine), so if forced to mount a third, the last allowed by the regulations this year, the end of the preseason would be complicated.
“When I first saw the images of the car being lifted, I thought there was a lot of damage”
Despite harsh images showing a shattered RB16B, especially on the rear, Toyoharu Tanabe dropped that initial analyzes in situ they were not so negative. “When I first saw the images of the car being lifted, I thought there was a lot of damage,” explained Honda Technical Director.
“However, it actually seems that the damage is less than what we saw at first. However, the actual damage cannot be known from its appearance when installed in the car. We would like to send it back to our factory in Sakura and check it before making any decisions. I honestly don’t know, because the damage can vary depending on the location, “concluded Tanabe, thus leaving a door open to hope.