Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, Red Bull Ring, 2018

Gasly expects Red Bull to “push Honda massively” in 2019

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In the round-up: Pierre Gasly expects Red Bull to make a big push for Honda to raise its game when it begins using their engines in the 2019 F1 season.

What they say

Speaking before Daniel Ricciardo’s move to Renault was anounced, Gasly was asked about his expectations of Honda’s development next year:

To have four cars instead of two is always better in terms of development and also with such a big team as Red Bull, we know how big and how strong they are. So for sure they’re going to push Honda massively in the direction.

So if we can share all our strengths together for sure it’s going to be positive. I think also the work for next year will be starting now because all the improvements we can make at the moment will be useful for Red Bull next year.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Have you also been won over by Charles Leclerc?

Leclerc is my fav driver week in week out. To me he just has that natural instinct to be a great driver and when you see a 20 year old rookie in a Sauber making a few Q3s, albeit with Ferrari power, you just have to sit back and appreciate it. When Spa comes a few weeks from now I won’t be surprised to see some good points from him.
Josh (@Canadianjosh)

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On this day in F1

  • 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna put his McLaren-Honda MP4/4 on pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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33 comments on “Gasly expects Red Bull to “push Honda massively” in 2019”

  1. I agree with Gasly, and concerning that: Of course, we’ll never get to know for sure, and also that it’s easy to point things out afterwards, etc., but perhaps Ron Dennis shouldn’t have vetoed Red Bull’s request for the Honda PUs for 2016 after all.

    I also agree with the COTD.

  2. Christian Fittipaldi had one of the most bizarre accidents in F1 at the end of the 1993 Monza GP, when he touched wheels with his teammate, just before crossing the finish line.

    https://youtu.be/Jim2XMBt5MA

    1. Also, he was racing his teammate for a position out of the points, which makes it even more absurd. I remember watching on tv at the time, and it was such a spectacular crash that the clip was shown on sports news segments in the US all over the place. It was one of those rare moments where the general US public was exposed to F1.

    2. Not quite the right link there ;)
      Here’s the 1993 Monza incident:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-S5Ov43b8

  3. I’m worried for the RBR Honda collaborations if they are already adding pressure to the mix. It will require brilliant leadership from both sides but especially from RBR, hats off is they can pull it off. But if you can’t keep one of the best drivers on the grid in the team then maybe leadership is lacking… If Honda don’t come out of the box with a decent engine by testing next year I can only imagine that relationship will get tense very quickly.

    1. I expect Honda to push Honda massively too. There is always pressure by all teams and Pu makers to improve. I don’t expect the relationship to get tense very quickly, because both sides know this is a new relationship that will take some time to evolve. I don’t buy for a second that lack of leadership resulted in DR leaving. I have no doubt RBR/Honda will have dnfs next year and when they do they will remember that after 11 years with Renault they were having too many with them too. RBR will have no regrets at trying something different, but inevitably the headlines will pose questions of RBR’s decision every time they dnf, just as they kept asking FA about his decision (level of regret) to leave Ferrari every time they looked to have improved, at which point he would basically respond ‘have they won a WDC or WCC yet’?

      1. Why not buy that leadership was lacking? DR’s been put in the shadow of a wunderkind time and time again by Horner, interestingly enough even while he states that DR was a great teacher for the young driver, surely that would suggest he was the senior of the two, yet gets paid substantially less, even though he has better results & a longer history with the team.

        I expect fireworks between their drivers (none of the drivers on the cards to take the spot are as laid back as DR), fireworks between themselves and Honda, and a slip in their WCC ranking next year.

        1. @Ross Time and time again? For example?

          Gets paid substantially less? Of course that is a non-argument and is merely a matter of contracts. DR had an existing contract that remains until the end of this year. Max went to them himself to commit to the team for the near future…hence a new contract. Nothing prevented DR from doing the same except for DR himself. And as far as I know F1 teams don’t generally just freely offer more money to one driver who has an existing contract, just because the other driver stepped up and committed to the team under a new contract.

          Fireworks between their drivers? That would be great. Fireworks between themselves and Honda? Only if Honda is still nowhere in three more years but initially RBR knows it is a new relationship that takes time to gel. There’s been a lot of history and baggage in 12 years with RBR/Renault.

          A slip in their WCC rankings next year? Yeah that’s possible but I doubt they’re that concerned since continuing to be third in the WCC is still not good enough, and they can certainly afford it if they have to take a little less prize money while they sort things with Honda. Obviously their hope will be that they don’t skip a beat and do at least as well as they have with Renault, but if they don’t, they obviously are willing to take that risk.

          1. For example the time he stated publicly that RBR will be built around MV. As for the contract situation, $30million per year they gave to MV, that’s a World Champions salary. While I’m not privy to the salary they we’re offering DR, given Markos recent comments in the press regarding the process it would appear RBR were not bringing that sort of offer to DR.

            They’ve only signed a two year agreement with Honda. So yes I expect fireworks if they don’t see the podium next year at the very least. Listen to MVs uncensored audio from the last race to see how frustrated he is with the current underperforming pu… They’re willing to risk it because they have no where else to go.

          2. @Ross Perhaps you could provide the quote where ‘he’ (Horner I presume?) states publicly that the team will be built around Max. You’d think DR leaving would not have been such a tough decision for him if that were the case.

            As to Max’s salary, I believe you have that wrong too. If you heard or read $30 mill I believe that would be for his three year contract, not per year. So he’s making more like 10 per year.

            And yes of course Max is allowed to be frustrated in the heat of the moment at dnf’s that prevent him from gaining more points. Renault have been in it long enough that this should not be happening. Honda will be in a similar situation if they continue to make little progress but at least initially it will be a new relationship and will have a honeymoon period with RBR.

          3. https://www.speedcafe.com/2017/10/15/horner-calls-verstappen-build-team-around/

            As far as salary, I stand corrected. I had misread the total contract rather than yearly. Given Dan’s salary at a similar stage in the RBR garage was around $1-$2million per season. The $10million they have given MV is quite a step ahead of what they felt DR was worth.

            As far as the honeymoon period, I just don’t see RBR having that much patience with only a two year contract. They’ve been so quick to hit the trigger on the leaving F1 statement in the past, if they don’t get a decent PU next year with their only remaining option I get the feeling Liberty will get the threat again.

    2. I unfortunately have to agree. Wasn’t impressed by how leadership handled their relationship with Renault. Worrysome.

  4. Piquet was just 23 when senior management that should know better convinced him to crash his car on purpose. Sure he’s not blameless, but I think we can leave that one be now can’t we?

    1. @john-h Yes, we indeed can. Fully agreed.

    2. ColdFly (@)
      6th August 2018, 7:21

      That.
      And the media guide seems to be from 2006; how could he know then?
      @john-h

    3. Absolutely @john-h, I honestly thought we’d moved on from that a while ago. It’s bad enough to see Flav on the grid at some races, makes me shudder whenever I see him.

    4. no, we can’t, it should be a reminder to those who might think of doing something similar

      1. @johnmilk
        You might need reminding. I sure don’t. A bit of a silly tweet to be honest and as it has been pointed out the pack is from before Nelson joined F1.
        Unnecessary dig.

        1. the tweet maybe a bit out of place. We shouldn’t forget what happened regardless, especially those who are involved with Motorsport

  5. For the record, Barrichello won that race. And with it, a prize money of one million reais (about 250000 dollars).

  6. Regarding the COTD: @Canadianjosh describes it beautifully but I sometimes feel that us fans are too eager to find the next supertalent. First Verstappen, then Ocon, then Leclerc, Gasly, Norris. All labeled as the next superstar. They may as well be (and I do think that we can be lucky with so much talent around), but we don’t give them time to mature. Look at Verstappen, quite a few fans already gave up on him looking for the next supertalent.

    1. I agree. It looks like you’re even the next Senna or out of F1.

      1. Either not even…

  7. Congrats to Jamie Chadwick!

    1. Absolutely, just seen her interviewed on Breakfast, she made a big point of wanting to make it on a level playing field, or at least not one that patronised women. I see she went to Cheltenham Ladies College, so the most important factor, enough money to get into the feeder series was probably taken care of.

      I think Racefans could have given this a bit more profile especially given the pointless furore over gridgirls and their impact on women in motorsport.

      Look forward to hearing more of this lady.

  8. Someone tell Gasly he needs a visit to the orthodontist! Too much redbull soda.

  9. McLaren tried the tactic of pushing Honda massively. Just look how that worked out.

    Now I’m not saying a constructor shouldn’t apply pressure, but they should understand when to press, and when to understand more pressure will only produce unreliability.

  10. Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
    6th August 2018, 20:21

    Wow, Fittipaldi was still going strong, reminds me a bit of Tarquini in the WTCC.

    1. Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
      6th August 2018, 20:24

      Calderon is interesting, if not particularly talented. She is better than Jorda at least, which is hardly much of an achievement but there you go.

  11. Interesting – Horner just stated last week that RBR doesn’t expect Honda to be on pace with the leaders in 2019 insinuating they won’t put pressure on them.

    I guess Pierre doesn’t understand putting pressure on Honda doesn’t mean they will successfully deliver the goods. It could have a adverse effect as it did with McLaren.

    Merc and Ferrari have it figured out and it’s going to take a LOT of work to catch those two. After all, Merc and Red aren’t sitting around waiting for Honda to catch them.

    And Ferrari is helping Haas and Sauber as can be seen by their pace and they will only get better. And it’s only in Merc’s best interest to help Williams as they will next year.

    I won’t be surprised to see RBR to slip and be competing with the mid fielders next year. Of course it all depends on Honda.

    1. @Ben Gasly speaks of pushing Honda, not putting pressure on them. I’m sure at Mac there was more of a pushing than a pressuring as well…until two and three years in they appeared to go backwards not forwards. Then it became a pressure situation. At this point Honda appears to possibly maybe have turned a corner (said with some reservation) and perhaps is at least done going backwards, so I would say for sure there will be no pressuring for next year. But everything will just have to play itself out. We’ll just have to see what happens with a Newey 2019 car with a 2019 Honda Pu behind. But I think we should expect a certain honeymoon period where for a time all indiscretions from either side will be forgiven as being part of a learning curve and a growing process.

      1. Pushing is putting pressure on them. They don’t need to be pushed – they are doing as good a job as possible. If RBR starts stirring the pot they will end up with the same relationship as McLaren. It’s going to be interesting to see how this pans out

  12. @Ben Oh for sure it is going to be interesting. Going to be fascinating to watch unfold. I think Honda and RBR have their eyes wide open. There are no secrets as to what has happened with Honda since they came back to F1, and no secrets about what has transpired for RBR/Renault over the last decade plus. All the sides here know there are no guarantees, but this is where they now find each other, and they’ll all do their best. Imho there is already pressure, but it is a good pressure while they are in a honeymoon period. The ‘tough’ pressure if you will, will come if the project isn’t working out after a time period that is longer than reasonable for a new relationship that is taking place when F1 cars have never been more complex. Just saying I don’t see RBR ‘stirring the pot’ until much time and effort has gone by for both sides at advancing the project, and until stirring becomes necessary/understandable. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

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