The engine development made by the Mercedes Formula 1 team over the winter ahead of the 2020 season has left Honda a “little bit ✃surpr🔜ised”.

Both Honda and Mercedes have introduced engine specification upgrades following the four-month gap c🍃aused by the COVID-19 pandemic betwe🐎en the cancelled Australian Grand Prix and new season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.

Mercedes enjoyed a strong start to the campaign by claiming the first pole position and victor𓂃y of the revised 2020 campaign on offer🍌 and also enjoyed a half-a-second buffer over Red Bull in qualifying.

And Red Bull’s significant gap to Mercedes seen in qualifying came as a surpr🐷ise to its Japanese power unit manufacturer.

“In prac❀tice we were seeing what we expected from the dyno, especially on the long runs as𝐆 well,” Honda F1 manning director Masashi Yamamoto said.

⛦“So everything was as we had planned, but we were surprised by the progress Mercedes has made, especially in qualifying, so we were a little bit surprised by th⛦e gap we had to them.”

Max Verstappen has urged Red Bull to keep pushing after admitting that Merce♛de✃s has “made bigger steps than us”.

“I think we made big steps but clearly Mercedes made bigger steps than us. We have to keep pushing,” Verstappen s🧸aid.

“There’s still perfor🐷mance again but not only from the engine also from the car, so w🅷e just have to push on both sides to become better.

“But clearly M﷽ercedes has done a really good job over the wiꦕnter.”

And Verstappen remainsও confident Red Bull can challenge Mercedes if it finds a few extra tenths.

“If you look at the da♓ta, there are not🅰 many corners where we are slower,” he added.

“I think most of them wer🀅e faster, but I wasn’t really 🐻happy with the balance throughout the whole corner so from entry to mid-corner and around here you’ve got a bit of confidence to push in high-speed corners.

“We just neeꦉd to figure out how we can make it a little bit more balanced and then I’m sure we ca♌n be closer.

“I don’t say we will beat them in qualifying but if we can be within like two or three-tenths of qualifying, then it’s definitely game o🌠n in the race.”

Both Red Bull drivers retired from theไ opening round in Austria due to engine-related reliability failures, and Honda has subsequently brought “countermeasures” to prevent similar issues this weekend.