GhostF1 wrote: ↑07 Oct 2020, 04:54
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15260 ... se-rumours
Key Points of Interest:
- Horner claims there is absolutely no engine related exit clause in Max's contract.
- Dietrich Mateschitz gets the final say in which PU direction they go.
- They need total clarity on which way they are going before years end.
- Horner has changed his tone and has vaguely positive things to say about Renault's restructuring and it's new Board.
Most interestingly concerning Honda...
- Honda are bringing forward their "brand new 2022 engine for 2021 which has brought great optimism to the team and Max" who are expecting a good jump forward.
"He is competitive. He feels very comfortable in the team and believes strongly in the Honda program.
"I think he also sees that Honda has brought forward their engine from 2022 to 2021. That is encouraging, of course.
"So we will take another step forward next year. He's excited about this, and he still has a long way to go until 2022."
Honda did say they will only pull out their resources at the end of year. They didn't specify which resources though.
But combining both statements, I'm led to believe that they will introduce the '22 spec possibly half way through the year. If I'm not mistaken, for next year, they are allowed to bring on in-season update for the ICE, MGU-H and TC.
From a championship point of view it makes sense, if they really want to challenge for the championship.
Looking at the fact that they plan to pull out at the end of the year, it's quite surprising though, as I would have kind of expected them to start phasing out their R&D engineers slowly once the championship starts.
I surely hope they do keep developing as far as they can and that we will finally see them winning at least the WDC