New Toro Rosso technical director Jody Egginton praised the progress Honda has made with its Formula 1 power unit since the team first used it at the beginning of last year.
Egginton described how the team is gradually discovering what progress Honda has made over the winter.“In-season Honda was strong on development last year,” he said. “They found a lot of kilowatts. We moved forward very rapidly and we’ve ended this season in that situation. That was already a big step from the start to the season.
“Like any PU manufacturer Honda have been super-busy over the winter, working on the next steps and we’re carefully validating what they’ve learnt over the winter. And we’re introducing step-by-step these developments and pushing forward.
“I think every every team at the moment is nowhere near the edge of the operating envelope on the PU. We’re just going step-by-step.
“But compared to this time last year the engine has taken a fantastic step forward. I think that was clear towards the end of last year to be honest that they’d made that step but they’re just carrying on so we’re very happy in that respect.”
[smr0901]Although there have been some staff changes as Honda has expanded to supply power units to Red Bull, Egginton says its collaboration with Toro Rosso has been unaffected.
“Honda are working along in the background doing their thing, it’s fantastic, they’re causing there’s no compromise or anything, it’s been great. The PU situation’s been fantastic.
“We’ve sort of picked up where we left off towards the end of last year plus we’re familiar with the way the guys work there now and it’s quite seamless for us with the majority the guys in the garage and the same. So from the Honda side they’re just getting on with it and we’re leaving them to run their program really.”
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nase
26th February 2019, 11:49
In tomorrow’s news: New Taureau Rouge janitor says Honda made a ‘gigantic leap’, while making various vaguely positive statements and using the words ‘great’, ‘fantastic’ and ‘awesome’ at least once in every sentence.
erikje
26th February 2019, 13:57
A bit like listening to an apple presentation indeed.
But, looking at the situation it really seems te be a major step.
nase
26th February 2019, 14:10
Aside from all the talk, what evidence of a major step is there? Because that’s precisely my gripe: We’re getting buried in a flood of overwhelmingly positively worded statements, but where are the facts to back them up?
Robbie (@robbie)
26th February 2019, 14:48
@nase Well, it’s testing, so we won’t really know ‘the facts’ until Australia, about all teams really, not just STR and RBR. For now, albeit just testing, they appear to have reliability and no small amount of pace at the same time. We will only know once they are actually qualifying and racing where they will stand, as well as where all the teams stand. You know there is a chance that Honda has actually made strides in the past year. But they’re not claiming they’re now the benchmark.
BlackJackFan
27th February 2019, 3:52
case – I’ve long been exhausted by all this BS as well… but did you see the Samsung ‘folding’ presentation where the guy kept pausing… to allow the audience to applaud… so he could thank them…?
kpcart
26th February 2019, 12:15
Yeh yeh, 4 years too late Honda. The mclaren Honda partnership is when fans wanted you to succeed in f1. Mercedes, ferrari and Renault engines keep improving too, all Honda has done is finally reached a level playing field, though we don’t know what they will do in qualifying with party modes. for some reason news on the Honda engines improvements are almost at propoganda levels at the moment, red bull especially seem to be running a political campaign about them after bashing Renault, Renault who look to have made a step this year also.
Jv
26th February 2019, 12:36
“Almost at propaganda level”
It’s because everybody keeps asking them and they’re not going to talk badly about their business partners.
Robbie (@robbie)
26th February 2019, 13:57
@Jv Exactly. Any talk of propaganda levels of speak are simply some people wanting to hear it that way. The above quotes couldn’t be more balanced, and fully respect that others have improved too, and that it is a constant work in progress etc etc. It does seem more and more like a fact that Honda has made some strides, and certainly they have put in many many testing laps from both STR and RBR and aren’t at the bottom of the times in order to do so, so it ‘appears’ (to coin an LH word) like progress has indeed been made, ie. they’re not just saying it to try to pull wool over peoples’ eyes. They are plain and simply pleased with how far Honda has come in a year, end of.
Todfod (@todfod)
26th February 2019, 14:48
I don’t think I’ve ever heard as much praise for a Mercedes PU, Ferrari PU or even Renault PU at any point in time in the hybrid era. Surely, Honda has turned it’s situation around better than Ferrari’s engine development team managed between 2015 to 2018.
This is it. I can feel the power of dreams coming true.
Robbie (@robbie)
27th February 2019, 15:07
@todfod Lol your sarcasm knows no bounds when it comes to this, does it?
Since 2014 you’ve only heard positive praise about the Mercedes pu, and a lot of complaints about their locked in token advantage, then Ferrari started to make inroads finally for 2017 and 2018, to everyone’s relieve as an option if one is not a Mercedes fan, Renault has done little that is praiseworthy this whole time, and it is Honda that was the late comer to the game and stands out as the ones needing to catch up the most. So if they are showing signs internally, and are having an encouraging testing, then that’s good news for all of F1 and the show. There isn’t a single thing wrong with the quotes above.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th February 2019, 16:46
@robbie
I don’t remember Toto constantly harping on about how much progress Mercedes had made during the hybrid era.. Maybe youre getting confused with what everyone else was saying about Mercedes during the time.
Honda and Red bull would be better of keeping a tight lid on statements.. Constantly talking about progress doesn’t do anyone good. It just sets them up for a bigger fall.. And trust me if there’s one engine supplier that has a solid track record of failure, it’s Honda.
Robbie (@robbie)
27th February 2019, 18:31
@todfod That’s because Merc came out swinging from the getgo. That was really my point which is that there was no opportunity for them to have to come from so far down. The praise has been constant and strong towards the whole team from TW, deservedly so, but at no time could TW have spoken about great gains from one year to the next. They’re the only WCCers in this hybrid era.
I do understand the point of your second paragraph, and much of our discussion over the last few days, but I just don’t think what they have said so far is a problem, and they can’t be expected to just say no comment when asked what everyone wants to know…how’s it going with Honda, and how’s it going with Honda compared to Renault…because of course those asking are going to want their sound bytes.
I believe them when they have expressed pleasure at the progress, and would be more on board with your point if they were talking about being right up there with Mercs and Ferrari’s. Of course that is there goal, but I can only repeat I haven’t read anything they’ve said that sounded cocky at all…hopeful…positive…looking at the glass half full…that’s how I would characterize it, given that they aren’t just going to say nothing. I’ll trust that they wouldn’t be as positive as they sound if they didn’t have some reason. They’d be more reserved if they were more worried.
Also, let’s face it the odds of them winning the Championships this year are slim, so it’s not like whatever they say is really going to backfire, is it? If they retain their third place in the WCC I think that will be a victory in itself for them in their first year with Honda, second for STR, and for Honda too that would feel like victory.
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
26th February 2019, 12:33
Keith & Dieter burst into laughing tears while writing this article. Troll level: RaceFans.
nase
26th February 2019, 13:09
Well, that’s one way to look at it.
Nikki (@nikkit)
26th February 2019, 13:35
How many new engines did it take to make that progress last year?
Did seem like every other race the Torro Rossos were down near or at the back. It is going to be interesting to see whether the reliability issues are improved, or the Red Bull/Honda partnership may sour quite quickly.
erikje
26th February 2019, 14:00
Do not forget, they had only one team to test and develop. The other engine manufacturers at least three. So lots of additional info Honda lacked.
Todfod (@todfod)
26th February 2019, 14:53
@nikkit
I think they went through 9 ICEs, 9 Turbos, 9 MGU-H and 7 MGU-Ks on Gasly’s car… and they also had a failure in Abu Dhabi. So.. I guess they went through 10 by the end of the season. Hartley’s car was kind of similar .. they went through 8 ICEs, 8 Turbos, 8 MGU-Hs and 7 MGU-Ks.
Overall they managed to use 3 times the allotted amount for one season… but I’m sure there was progress on the reliability front and performance front… I just don’t think any of us witnessed it.
OOliver
26th February 2019, 23:15
Can we really blame Honda for those awful years. They wanted to delay their entry by a year, but we’re rushed in too early by Mclaren. Already years behind in research, they were forced to develop a weak engine under a token system that seriously limited the scope of work.
Eventually the token system was scrapped, but they were now even further behind and they were now facing an impatient partner wanting results.
They were thus forced to rush their development and do so in public with embarrassing failures.
Mclaren were more responsible for the failure of that partnership.
They are almost there, more power, more reliability, more confident.
Ross (@dejavous)
26th February 2019, 23:39
That might have explained year one, even two. But year three was a clean slate opportunity and they went backwards. Performance and reliability did not improve. Only Honda was to blame for that. Last year, freed from the oppressive atmosphere at Mclaren they still had awful reliability and subpar performance. If the same pattern repeats, this time next year I’m sure I’ll be reading more comments from experts about how it is still all Mclarens fault.