Honda’s Yusuke Hasegawa has admitted that losing the deal to supply Sauber with its engines for next year was very bad for the outfit and a big blow to their aspirations. The deal was made in principal by the Russian Grand Prix this year to start in the 2018 season, when Monisha Kaltenborn was still team principal.
However after Kaltenborn departed in late June, there was a shift in direction for the team with Frederic Vasseur taking the team in a new direction, away from the Honda engines which were sure to hurt the teams competitiveness, and managed to negotiate a deal for newer Ferrari engines instead.