'More power' coming from Honda 'soon' - Marko

By GMM F1Published: 19 March 2019 7:21 AM

Honda is promising more power, and Red Bull is determined to improve its chassis after the new works pairing impressed at the 2019 season opener in Melbourne.

Max Verstappen, finishing behind the two Mercedes, ensured that pre-season favourite Ferrari couldn't even be on the podium in Australia.

And Dr Helmut Marko says there is more to come.

"We hope that Mercedes' form was specific to Melbourne," the top team official told Auto Motor und Sport.

"We were ahead of Ferrari, but we want to be ahead of everyone," Marko added.

For that, he admitted that Red Bull has work to do.

"The best part of the package is the Honda engine," he said. "For our part we need to improve the chassis.

"We have too little downforce, but that's born of the philosophy of the last five years where we had to constantly compensate for the lack of performance."

He is talking about Red Bull's former supplier Renault, who according to Marko always produced too little engine power.

"That's why we didn't have any big wings in Melbourne," said Marko. "They don't exist in our imagination.

"We will try to solve this as quickly as we can put it through CFD development and production."

As for the engine, Marko said Honda is promising to close the 10-20 horse power gap to Mercedes.

"The board, which was in Melbourne, promised us that more power is coming soon," he confirmed.

"If the power increase is significant, we will not wait until the eighth race. We would in that case take a penalty for the start of the race," said Marko.

"It's then up to us to develop the chassis to catch up with the people ahead of us."

Verstappen, third in Melbourne, also has nothing but good things to say after Red Bull dropped Renault to switch to Honda.

"It's just a completely different engine, but I don't like comparing with what we had before," he told Ziggo Sport. "I don't want to upset anyone."