Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso, Monaco, 2018

Honda’s Montreal upgrade a “sizeable step” – Hartley

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In the round-up: Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley says he is encouraged by the progress the team are making and expects more at the next race.

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What they say

Hartley expects a boost from Honda’s power unit upgrade for the Canadian Grand Prix:

I think it’s pretty positive for Montreal. We have an engine update coming. We had a new floor here some performance put on the car. It looks like we’re really starting how to understand all the car’s potential.

I don’t know exact numbers [for the engine upgrade]. I think it’s better that you asks someone from Honda or Toro Rosso but I think it’s meant to be a sizeable step.

Quotes: Gabriele Koslowski

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Comment of the day

Were Force India helping Mercedes or themselves by not holding Hamilton up?

Inter-team collusion is still banned in the Sporting Regulations, so regardless of what Ocon’s move was, I cannot imagine Toto Wolff being foolish enough to claim it was an order relating to Mercedes.

As it happens, I’m inclined to believe Force India because Ocon didn’t manage to make the tyre last as it was. I do not see how any element of attempting to hold Hamilton off would have helped him out, and would merely have put him behind Hulkenberg after his pit stop. Hamilton is not a rival in the championship, even if he happened to be a rival in this race. Hulkenberg is definitely going to be a challenge for the championship.

This was Force India thinking more long-term in its self-interest than is perhaps comfortable, but there is no particular reason to believe another team’s order would also be necessary. Especially given that Ocon appears to reserve over-defensive obedience of orders to situations when his team-mate is involved.
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26 comments on “Honda’s Montreal upgrade a “sizeable step” – Hartley”

  1. Hamilz0rs
    30th May 2018, 4:00

    Not much to say
    Ocon admitted after the race that he is a Mercedes driver and that journalists need to ask the boss. When asked if he had to let Hamilton through i think he said “that is desirable”

  2. neuralfraud
    30th May 2018, 4:46

    Ouch! What a burn from Tiff! Not sure if it’s aimed more at F1 or more at Crofty. For effect, one could play the opening laps of Monaco to video footage of two snails “racing” each other – it is literally that ridiculous. The Indy 500 was great. I thought my air filter needed to be checked because the house seemed awfully dusty there at the end…

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      Tristan (@skipgamer)
      30th May 2018, 5:20

      Yes and no, from driver introduction to pouring the milk – then that includes the U.S propaganda rubbish of how they fight for freedom and race for freedom and blah blah blah… That has no place in motor racing, in my opinion.

      Cars on the edge? Yeah sure, that was great seeing cars just spin randomly with no warning or chance to correct and even the drivers saying they have no idea why. There’s nothing worse than unpredictable instability, sounds like a crap shoot…

      And finally the commentary, I found it was boring. Whenever the BTSport crew took over I was immediately more interested. They were able to articulate more than 5 words in a sentence and describe what was happening in the race far more effectively.

      The racing was good, though the best highlights came from someone carving their way expertly through the field. I’m sure you could cut something together similarly of Verstappen in Monaco.

      Besides that most of the intrigue came from (failed) fuel strategy. Don’t rightly know why they are so pleased with it all.

      1. kpcart
        30th May 2018, 12:31

        @Tristan, I find your comments completely negative. you try driving for 500 miles at that speed with loose cars, the guys that finished the indy 500 are all great drivers and put on a great show. also forget the propaganda, F1 has propaganda too, no more so then institutionalized preference for drivers from Europe. you don’t have to “know” why people are so pleased with it all, but the sheer number of motorsports fans that watch it with positivity and happiness and even like it more than an f1 race shows it is a tremendous event with great drivers and great race cars.

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          Tristan (@skipgamer)
          31st May 2018, 3:36

          Eh I was just countering each point of the tweet, I’m not negative all the time I promise :P There definitely was some nice 3, 4 wide racing. Nothing against the drivers or the fans at all, I just didn’t see it as being so overwhelmingly amazing. As for the sheer number of fans that watch it well, ratings were a poor showing while F1 ratings were higher than ever.

          Don’t get me started on the propaganda, I’ve never seen soldiers on the battlefield in any F1 race ever, let alone while a voice over talks about almighty god and fighting for freedom. It’s pretty disgusting and as long as they keep it up, will never have world-wide reach in an increasingly culturally diverse and atheist world.

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        faulty (@faulty)
        30th May 2018, 15:07

        I agree with most of your post. I don’t know what a BTS is, so for that I can’t give you a “+1”.

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          JohnNik (@johnnik)
          30th May 2018, 22:58

          BTS-port = BTSport across 2 lines of text…

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      ColdFly (@)
      30th May 2018, 7:03

      Reasoned commentary not needing to shout and scream to pretend it’s exciting. Real motor RACING!!

      Not needing to shout, but decided to use CAPS anyway :p

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      Potsie (@potsie159)
      2nd June 2018, 10:31

      Well I tend to disagree with Tiff on that one. Even though the Indy 500 was won by an Aussie, I did find the race a bit on the ‘hard to watch’ side. That was mainly due to ESPN being an Advertising channel with breaks every now and then for the program. American sports (football, basketball, indycar etc) seems to be designed that way – lots of AD breaks with minimal actual program.

      I tend to agree that Crofty does seem to be loosing it though. Perhaps he should stick to darts. I don’t know who’s idea it is to have a direct line to one of the Team Principals each week, but the ‘crosses’ to Cyril Abiteboul were a total waste of time in Monaco. I’d like to see (hear) Paul di Resta more ‘cos at the moment I am resorting to also watching the Channel 4 coverage to find out more of what was actually going on. Wouldn’t it be great to have guys that know what they are talking about – eg. DC, di Resta, Davidson and Webber – all on the same channel!

      Having said that, the most impressive commentary I heard at Monaco was Joylon Palmer with the F2 – maybe Sky could get Joylon to sit in Crofty’s chair in the future… I’d like that.

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    Phylyp (@phylyp)
    30th May 2018, 5:45

    Someone ought to remind Hartley that Renault are beaten only by Honda in the overpromise and underdeliver department, and that he shouldn’t hold his breath.

    That said, I’m sure Horner is holding his breath, as that Honda upgrade will definitely feed into the RBR PU decision.

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      BasCB (@bascb)
      30th May 2018, 8:08

      :-) pretty much my thoughts too when I read that

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      petebaldwin (@)
      30th May 2018, 10:09

      Things do seem different with Honda this year though. It seems that with the help of Toro Rosso, they are finally getting there.

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        Phylyp (@phylyp)
        30th May 2018, 10:16

        @petebaldwin – yes, they seem to have had a better start, and the relationship also seems to be in a nicer place (it’s early days, though). I would be very happy if Hartley’s statement comes true, despite the pessimism in my earlier comment.

      2. kpcart
        30th May 2018, 12:33

        I don’t think it has any thing to do with toro rosso, it is just time. Honda came into this era last, so will always be behind, but since performance starts to converge eventually, it means they are not as far behind as previous years.

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    FlatSix (@)
    30th May 2018, 6:33

    “We’re going to end up being sued and I’m going to tell you that they’re probably going to win suits.”

    No link to the contest, I’d love to win a suit!?

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      ColdFly (@)
      30th May 2018, 7:12

      Probably just a pack of cards ;)

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    ColdFly (@)
    30th May 2018, 7:08

    It wasn’t FI giving team orders, but Ocon keeping his real boss happy!

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      Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
      30th May 2018, 13:13

      Ocon and Toto Wolf confirmed the existence of such agreement last week.
      http://www.f1i.fr/infos/ocon-nai-droit-de-ralentir-mercedes/

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    petebaldwin (@)
    30th May 2018, 10:06

    And Renault said they didn’t know what RBR were waiting for…… If the upgrade is good, it’s RBR-Honda. If not, they’ll sign up with Renault for another year.

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      Todfod (@todfod)
      30th May 2018, 10:38

      It will be interesting if Honda brings a package that actually delivers a decent performance upgrade. It’s highly unlikely… but not entirely impossible. It’s even more interesting that Renault haven’t gotten their upgrade ready for Canada, so it’s almost like Horner will have to gamble after Honda’s upgrade on his PU choice, without knowing what Renault’s upgrade can deliver.

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        Matteo (@m-bagattini)
        30th May 2018, 11:21

        @todfod @petebaldwin to add to the equation, Toro Rosso performance will probably be masked by their good feeling with hypersofts, something they had in Monaco and I hope to see again in Montreal. Decisions, decisions, decisions for Horner.

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      Ju88sy (@)
      30th May 2018, 14:51

      @petebaldwin It feels like the logical decision is stick with Renault for 2019 and twist to Honda for 2020, year before the regs change to work closely together and build the collaboration for 2021. I would be surprised if the Honda Montreal upgrade on its own is enough to sway Red Bull’s decision.

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    Jere (@jerejj)
    30th May 2018, 11:08

    I’m not surprised at all that the proposed Miami GP plan already seems to be getting opposition from residents.

    1. mfreire
      30th May 2018, 22:07

      I tell you wut, son. Them Gran Pree sumbitches are gunna have a dang hard time racin’ them jalopies around them streets! That town’s gunna get sued faster than I can say jackrabbit.

      But seriously that’s to be expected. That happens in almost every street race in an American city.

      1. mfreire
        30th May 2018, 22:09

        *before a street race is held in a major American city. Maybe they should consider Tamiami Park?

      2. Chikano
        31st May 2018, 7:19

        Could not help but read that in a Texas accent LOL

Comments are closed.