Max Verstappen 'excited' to try Honda as 2019 Red Bull F1 car runs

Red Bull has switched to Honda engines for 2019 and Verstappen recently described his experience of the new partnership on the simulator as "positive".

But he wanted to reserve full judgement until pre-season testing, which begins in Spain next week.

On Wednesday he will get an initial taste of the package, with Red Bull about to run its Honda-powered RB15 in what it called a "launch look" at Silverstone.

Speaking in a video issued by Red Bull ahead of its unveiling, Verstappen said: "What I'm most looking forward to is the start of the season and to see how the whole team is operating together with Honda, and how the engine is performing to relative to the chassis.

"I'm very excited to just get started with the engine.

"I really want to feel how it upshifts, downshifts, how the driveability is, how much power there is.

"From there you just start to work together with the car what you can improve."

Verstappen won two races in 2018 with Renault power, while team-mate Daniel Ricciardo claimed another two victories earlier in the season.

Honda made good progress in 2018 with Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso, which is what won over Red Bull top brass for this campaign.

More gains still need to be made in terms of both power and reliability for Honda to score its first podium in the V6 turbo-hybrid era, let alone the first win.

"We are expecting a lot," said Verstappen.

"We're all very positive, but it also needs to take a bit of time. It's not like from race one it can be perfect.

"For sure there will be moments where as a team we'll make mistakes or it's maybe not going as we want it to.

"What is very important is the team and Honda are pushing really hard to improve the development.

"At the moment I am of course very optimistic, but also realistic.

"Time will tell how we're going to perform."