Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner says a sense of "great anticipation" is permeating through the Milton Keynes squad ahead of its first race with new engine partner Honda.
The Red Bull/Honda collaboration moved from the factory to the race track during pre-season testing in Barcelona, where the two partners' engineering crews further strengthened an association that has hit the ground running according to Horner.
Since switching its allegiance from long-time engine supplier Renault to Honda, Red Bull has praised the Japanese company's efforts and integration, with Horner underscoring the positive feeling the relationship has instilled at all levels of the team.
"There’s a sense of great anticipation and excitement within the factory," Horner told RACER.
"It’s exciting to be working with a new partner that shares our racing instinct and desire for competitiveness in a true partnership.
"So it’s been great to see Honda engineers and Red Bull engineers really engaging and working hard on engineering solutions.
"The whole technical team has fully embraced this with huge enthusiasm, so it’s been like a new lease of life throughout the technical team, who are now working in a technical partnership, as opposed to a customer-supplier relationship."
Moving from the uniformity of its 12-year partnership with Renault - which as a reminder yielded four consecutive double world championships - to an association with an entity built on an entirely different culture promised its fair share of communication and work ethic challenges.
But the Red Bull/Honda joint effort has shown no signs of agitation, or anything being lost in translation.
"I have found working with Honda very straightforward. There’s a great deal of passion and enthusiasm," added Horner.
"It’s been a very open dialogue that the two companies have been having, and you can see their sense of determination and the commitment that Honda has made to Formula 1.
"It’s a perfect match for us. It’s been enjoyable and hopefully we can have some fun along the way as well.
"Rome wasn’t built in a day, so while we’re expecting to make progress throughout the year, the target is very much looking at this as a two to three-year project.
"In terms of the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes, we know where we’ve been the last couple of years.
"There are circuits that have suited us, there are circuits that haven’t — and our target is to be consistent across all types of venue."
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