Toro Rosso arrived with their Spec-3 engine for FP2 during the Russian Grand Pix weekend, they ran it for the session and then packed them away again sending them back to the factory to get fine-tuned for Suzuka where they are expected to deliver a massive step-up in performance.
The Honda RA618H was upgraded for Sochi, with most of the tweaks reportedly in the area of the internal combustion engine.
Out the box, they flew with Pierre Gasly ending the Friday afternoon session eighth-fastest and the sense of achievement in the Toro Rosso garage was palpable.
Team chief Franz Tost said, “Honda is making big steps forward. It is in front of Renault - complete package."
“We had it in the car Friday, but we have to start from the back of the grid and then we decided we go back to Spec-2 just to save some mileage and to make some fine-tuning. In Suzuka, we will have it.”
On Friday after practice at Sochi Autodrom using the Spec-3, Gasly told reporters, “I think everyone is quite excited about the step that Honda made. Introducing a new PU [means] a lot of mapping and a lot of things to get under control."
"There were not so many dramas and we definitely had a performance gain. I know sometimes you bring updates and you put it on the car you don’t really see the gains. With Honda it’s not the case."
“It’s really positive. We need to see how much we can extract from it, reliability, driveability to see if everything is fine when we turn everything up, but for them it’s a good step.”
Sochi was always going to be the 'sacrificial grand prix' for Honda ahead of their home race at Suzuka, where they will fully unleash their latest PU package, “We know that the main opportunity for us will be in Japan and the coming races.”
“We came here excited with the upgrade just to see how it would work and also in need of answers after the tough weekend of Singapore, and so far we’ve got them.
Teammate Brendon Hartley was also smiling, “We definitely had a step in performance and it was a really, really promising day from Honda’s point of view."
“I think everyone is quite excited about the step that Honda made. Introducing a new PU [means] a lot of mapping and a lot of things to get under control. There were not so many dramas and we definitely had a performance gain,” added the New Zealander.
loading
Latest News
Loading
