Praise and congratulations around the F1 paddock for Honda, who are back as F1 winners for the first time in 13 years
Tuesday 2 July 2019 19:16, UK
The F1 paddock has been paying tribute to Honda after the Japanese manufacturer powered Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to his amazing Austrian GP win.
Two years after ending a torrid and tumultuous three-year stint back at McLaren, Honda won for the first time in 13 years - and for just the second time in a full works capacity since 1992 and the end of their first spell at McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton, whose Mercedes team lost their unbeaten 2019 record to Red Bull amid a difficult race for the world champions in hot Austrian temperatures, passed on his congratulations after the race.
"It's great for Honda," said Hamilton after the race. "They've gone through some seriously miserable years at McLaren and it just shows that it's not always just the engine.
"It's a combination of work, with the manufacturer and team together - working on cooling and packaging and everything.
"They've obviously done that in this team. Congratulations to them."
Fellow British world champion, and now Sky F1 pundit, Jenson Button, had been the last driver in F1 to win with Honda power, at the 2006 Hungarian GP, for his first career win.
Button's race engineer during the BAR/Honda era was Toyoharu Tanabe, who now serves as the manufacturer's F1 technical director and was chosen by Red Bull to represent them alongside race victor Verstappen on the podium on Sunday.
Button tweeted:
The 2009 champion, who remains a Honda ambassador and continues to race for the company in Super GT, was at McLaren when the Japanese manufacturer first returned to F1 in 2015.
However, the reuniting of the team-engine partnership that dominated the late 1980s failed to live up to expectations, with unreliability and performance troubles ultimately leading to a split, with Honda heading for the Red Bull teams.
But, despite that past disappointment, McLaren chief Zak Brown sent his own congratulations to the team's former suppliers:
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