[JDF_AW]

According former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, the Honda engines last only a few races. The Canadian states the Japanese manufacturer is sacrificing the life of the power unit for better performance.


The races before the summerbreak have been very succesfull for the Red Bull-Honda combination. Max Verstappen won in Austria and Germany en got his First pole in Hungary. The Dutchman is now 3rd in the rankings, only 7 points behind the Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.
 
Despite the difference with leader Hamilton is considerably large -69 points- some consider Verstappen due to his recent results as an outsider for the title. Villeneuve however thinks these good results come at a cost which has to be payed in the remainder of the season.
 
“The problem is Honda will suffer gridpenalties in the 2nd part of the season. They have an engine that will last only for 3 or 4 races. That is the only reason they have this power. They don’t try to drive 7 races with it. If Mercedes and Ferrari would do the same, these teams would have 30 hp more”.
 
In all likelihood, Honda will introduce a new spec of the engine in Belgium or Italy leading to the first gridpenalties for Red Bull Racing. And possibly another update before Japan so the drivers have a fresh engine on Suzuka. After that, there should be enough engines in the pool to get to the end of the season. Confronted with the statement of Villeneuve Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko replied in one word: “Bollocks”.

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Source: https://nl.motorsport.com/f1/news/villen...e/4516650/

Note from me:  Not sure what Villeneuve has been smoking, but it has to be good stuff


At your service: manually translated to English  (blame my English teacher for any errors)

[Antilochos]

Villeneuve, such a douchebag. Remember how he kept saying every week that Verstappen was terrible, biggest mistake Red Bull made? Now, since he can't repeat that nonsense anymore to make a fool out of himself, he found something else; the Honda engines.

Sorry, I can't take this guy serious. And yes, wonder what he has been smoking, been smoking these last years.

[morini]

According former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, the Honda engines last only a few races. The Canadian states the Japanese manufacturer is sacrificing the life of the power unit for better performance.

I actually think there is some truth in this. Honda don't really need to worry about the reliability side this year because they are introducing updates so regularly the units don't have to last as many races as the other teams. This is going to hurt the RBR drivers in the second half of the season, it's as simple as that. If Max were a contender for this years WDC (personally I don't believe he is, it's pure media hype) the penalties he is going to take will make it impossible.

We will see if JV is right next year. If Honda can produce similar performance to Ferrari and Mercedes *and* the engines will last 7 races then I will be impressed.

[Jody Barton]

I'm in agreement with Morini on this one. Honda have already used their full allocation of three units, and the Honda chief is saying there will be at least two more engine upgrades before the end of the year. However, what is interesting is that none of them have gone bang across 4 cars, and all are still in the pool. In qualifying mode they are still a little off of Ferrari and Merc, it's in the races where they have parity.