Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, Silverstone, 2018

Honda engine too slow for Toro Rosso to score points – Gasly

2018 British Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly doubts Toro Rosso will be able to score points in today’s British Grand Prix as they are too slow on Silverstone’s straights.

Gasly, who qualified 14th, was happy with his car’s balance but said he was losing too much time between corners.

“The car was actually really good,” he told media including RaceFans at Silverstone. “I was surprised. I think since the beginning of the weekend I did five push laps between P1, P2 and P3, and the car was mega.

“But just with the long straight at the moment it’s crazy how much time we lose. We knew that on a track like this with turn one and nine being flat we will struggle.

“[We’re] talking about nine-tenths compared to Force India and Sauber so [it’s] just very difficult to fight. The car in the corners, looking at the GPS we are faster and looks pretty good, but just in the straight at the moment we are really slow.”

Asked by RaceFans whether he expects to Toro Rosso’s three-race point-less streak in today’s race, Gasly said: “Objectively, no.”

“We have no pace. No pace not coming from the car but from the engine. You know when you have no straight-line speed it’s difficult to overtake, difficult to defend.

“Objectively, at the moment, we actually were surprised to go into Q2 because we lost so much time in the straights at the beginning of the weekend that we knew we will struggle. We cannot recover nine-tenths in the corners.

“In the end it was a good day but [Sunday] will be difficult. [On] race day you know that you can always expect something at the front but in normal conditions at the moment we need to find much more straight-line speed.”

Gasly said he hadn’t been concerned at all about returning to the cockpit after team mate Brendon Hartley’s crash in practice. “Honestly I didn’t think about it at all.”

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19 comments on “Honda engine too slow for Toro Rosso to score points – Gasly”

  1. Soo, potentially, what would happen if they’d cut down in downforce a bit (like their big brother did, according to Verstappen)? I recall this issue from McLaren …

    1. Then they wouldn’t have a car as good anymore … as with McLaren.

      The problem is, & always has been, that Honda have brought rubbish to the teams, who have then needed to compromise to try get it to work in some sort of competitive way.

      1. That’s the way redbull feels about Renault

  2. How does it bode for 2019 when both RBR and Scuderia TR are going to have same PU.

  3. That analysis by Gasly is going to hurt all those “F1 fans” who have been accusing Alonso of not being fair for the last few years having to deal with the Honda engine …

    1. is not like mclaren is fighting redbull… theyre still in the back luckly for them williams seems to be doing worst..
      so yea the comments were bad, as is now proven that mclaren chassis sux

  4. The Renault PU would be too slow for them too. Just look at Renault and McLaren.

    This only shows how good the Redbull car is

    1. @anunaki, and how great those Ferrari and Mercedes PU’s are. Especially Ferrari have made massive progress on the PU front.

    2. Max has already stated the Renault is at least 80bhp down which is hindering them on the straights. It’s all relative and RB/TR are down compared to Merc and Ferrari engines which is obvious.

      Gasly starts ahead of Stoffel and is next after Alonso, which looks to me like he’s doing ok with that Honda pu.

      1. @9chris9 Red Bull are known to inflate (double) those numbers.

        Still when drivers say they are faster in corners and slower on the straights, then that is also very much aero related.

        When they are just as fast through the corners and then still slower on the straights, then you can complain about the engine and let us know what the difference on the straights is.

    3. My guess is that the step Honda made closed the gap to the Renault engine, with the difference being found in the driveability and reliability. Don’t forget, TR-Honda has used most PU components by far. I hope that they get their act together for 2019, or we might see a frustrated Redbull.

  5. Well well well

  6. Imagine the state of F1 if Ferrari had not caught up with Mercs PU. !!

  7. but your boss did thank “fast and reliable” Honda after that lucky 4th place in Bahrain!

  8. Honda is paying the price of Ron Dennis refusing to let them supply to another team years ago.
    They’re still lacking mileage and information. The second team is going to help them develop much faster, but it still i goind to take a while. Red Bull is already out of contention for next year.

    1. They should have enough information in 4 years in F1.

  9. May not be enough to score “points” (plural), but managed to score one.

  10. Sorry, this one make me laugh.

  11. Dash_Riprock
    10th July 2018, 14:01

    It’s déjà vu all over again

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