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Honda have enjoyed a great season so far in 2019 in the first year of their partnership with Red Bull, after some tough years with McLaren.
Max Verstappen scored the manufacturer's first win since 2006 at the Austrian Grand Prix and has not finished outside the top five all season.
However, although much improved, Honda still lack the performance of Mercedes and Ferrari. This is partly due to turbo lag, which is the slight delay in the time when you press the accelerator pedal and the full response from the engine.
Verstappen even went as far to suggest that this phenomenon cost him a shot at pole position at the British Grand Prix, so it is definitely a problem that Honda are working hard to fix.
“Your driving style is very important," Masamitsu Motohashi told Japanese Autosport. "Daniil is accelerating much faster, making it more difficult to adjust his car properly.
“In principle, we have four different drivers. It is, therefore, a very complex and flexible point. I think it is an important role for us to be alert to that.”
Honda are still trying to figure out which driver uses the pedals in the most efficient way, but Motohashi believes that they are learning and improving quickly.
“I learned a lot during the German GP. We started to improve immediately before the GP in Hungary. We still have some things to solve in terms of chassis and power source, but that will be fine. We still expect good updates.”
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Yet it's not really an excuse. Turbo lag should in theory not be an issue at all in the hybrid era, and I don't recall Honda having that problem earlier either, so it's a bit curious how they have it now. As for the four different drivers: great innit? Best possible scenario to gather data from four different methods of pushing the car. That ain't an issue, it's an opportunity.