2021 Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Wouter]

Asaki-san has recently given several interviews, in Japanese and English. He has also said this more than once.
I'd love to give you a link, but it's a lot of work to go back and read all these interviews, to see where he said what.
I'm pretty sure it can be found in the "General Honda F1 Topic". Maybe you can take a look there for yourself.

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I have searched and I can't find anything where Asaki-san says what you described above.
Perhaps you misread it or misquoted it? As you haven't read or heard the quote recently,
and are unable to locate it yourself, I suspect this is the most likely scenario and the information is sadly not true.

.
It's a shame you're drawing the wrong conclusion here. I can certainly find that interview again, but I simply don't have the time at the moment.
That doesn't mean it isn't true. What I have described is 100% correct, otherwise I would not have mentioned it here.
I'm not going to write nonsense here.

[PlatinumZealot]

Asaki san did say something to that effect in the Quatar race review if my memory is correct! But it was sort of a wishy-washy statetment. He said something like we can squeeze some more power and we will definitely give our best in the last races.

I mean something like this... Unless a new engine is released... It's pretty limiting what they can do with firing an 5 race old engine harder because Honda has a gentle wear profile anyway. As I said before, since used to work at an engine power plant, when the wear is looking good you always want more power until the wear is at some margin. Honda will not leave power on the table. This is why I said their engine is pretty much close to it's maximum power already. Maybe 3KW more or so as what Marko said.

[west52keep64]

Honda's head of power unit development Asaki-san said a while ago that they would save the best for the last race(s).
This can only be achieved if the car is optimal. Everything has to be right.
Over the past few weekends with Gasly and Yuki, it was already apparent how good the Honda PU is.
Their car is with the right setup already optimal , so they were able to show everyone the full potential of the Honda PU.
RBR indicates in this Tweet without saying anything that this will now also be the case with RBR.
This cargo box is not from Jeddah. Those from Jeddah were already at the track on Monday.

Asaki-san has recently given several interviews, in Japanese and English. He has also said this more than once.
I'd love to give you a link, but it's a lot of work to go back and read all these interviews, to see where he said what.
I'm pretty sure it can be found in the "General Honda F1 Topic". Maybe you can take a look there for yourself.

.
I have searched and I can't find anything where Asaki-san says what you described above.
Perhaps you misread it or misquoted it? As you haven't read or heard the quote recently,
and are unable to locate it yourself, I suspect this is the most likely scenario and the information is sadly not true.

.
It's a shame you're drawing the wrong conclusion here. I can certainly find that interview again, but I simply don't have the time at the moment.
That doesn't mean it isn't true. What I have described is 100% correct, otherwise I would not have mentioned it here.
I'm not going to write nonsense here.

This is the only interview I can find, and he makes no such comments: https://honda.racing/f1/post/behind-the ... power-unit

The only other relevant thing that pops up in a google search is this thread with your comment!

I'm sorry, but you can't claim to be 100% correct on this unless you can provide something to backup this claim. The reason I ask is my understanding was manufacturers are not allowed to bring performance updates to the engines this year, they are only allowed to make changes for reliability reasons. Therefore, I was interested to understand how they could ship an engine update in those cargo boxes and use it without taking a penalty.

[godlameroso]

Starting on the soft will give Max a pace advantage at the start, but the hard tire will only go ~120km that leaves 65ish km that he'll have to do on the softs, or stretch out the hard a bit. It won't be bad to start on the soft if everyone behind him starts on the soft because he'll be able to go longer in free air than the cars behind him. It will just put him out of sync with the Mercedes.

[Stu]

Maybe he needs to be out of sync with Mercedes to be able to win with a super aggressive strategy?

[godlameroso]

WOW what team work, done to perfection I must say!

[godlameroso]

Maybe he needs to be out of sync with Mercedes to be able to win with a super aggressive strategy?

Makes sense to me, that was amazing.

[PhillipM]

Great work on the tows there, they couldn't have got that better if they wanted.

[Gillian]

Wow pole! I did not expect that. Will be tense race

[Pany]

Yesssss. There is hope

[e30ernest]

Amazing lap by Max and amazing teamwork to be able to pull that off. Tomorrow is much more exciting now with Max on P1 but on softs while Lewis is on the more desirable Mediums at P2. It's going to be a long wait to the race tomorrow....

[max_speed]

Wow just Wow, redbull pulled a trick when we all thought game over. I am sure they have made plan for race day as well. Once you plan to rob a bank you do plan your exit after getting hands on $$. Perez is in a strong position to hold lewis. First phase hunt him, overtake and let max build the gap then pit early and stay on hard and within lewis pit window. Tyre whisperer perez will be very important tomm. Hope red bull can execute till end. Its not over until its over.

[TwanV]

Honda power! Amazing how they've kept their powder dry until the very last moment. Enjoy tomorrow everyone, whatever the outcome.

[PhillipM]

[...]

Perez is in a strong position to hold lewis. First phase hunt him, overtake and let max build the gap then pit early and stay on hard and within lewis pit window.

I don't think they're even going to hunt him, I think they want to jump Lewis at the start - Lando has spoilt things a bit there unfortunately - but with the soft tyres on Perez might still get close enough to stick it down the inside in T1 - Lewis will have no choice but to stay clean and clear of it, then Perez will have to try to hold the Merc back as long as he can so that Max doesn't have to burn those softs out early pushing on full fuel.

Merc will probably go the other way and just try to get behind Max and run long. Lando might put a spanner in the works there too, however.

[godlameroso]

Wow just Wow, redbull pulled a trick when we all thought game over. I am sure they have made plan for race day as well. Once you plan to rob a bank you do plan your exit after getting hands on $$. Perez is in a strong position to hold lewis. First phase hunt him, overtake and let max build the gap then pit early and stay on hard and within lewis pit window. Tyre whisperer perez will be very important tomm. Hope red bull can execute till end. Its not over until its over.

If Norris gets in front of Hamilton at the start Perez being 4th can stay in range to deny him 2nd or even the podium.

4th place for Hamilton is 12 pts, if Bottas finishes 8th that's 4 points for a total of 16 pts. Red Bull is 28 pts down, 1-2 plus fastest lap is 44 pts that would be a 28 point swing putting them tied as constructors with RBR winning on countback.