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Gasly wary Toro Rosso form could fluctuate with engine usage
Pierre Gasly believes Toro Rosso’s form is likely to be inconsistent in the remaining four races if it doesn’t use the latest specification of Honda power unit at every venue.
Toro Rosso has taken a number of penalties throughout the season as a result of exceeding limits on power unit components, with the latest coming in Russia where Honda introduced a significant upgrade. That new power unit was good enough to propel both cars into the top seven in qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix, but after a disappointing race, Gasly is wary that the same specification might not be used at all of the remaining rounds.
“We know in the midfield that if we want to score points, you need to make everything right, both qualifying and the race,” Gasly said. “Usually when had a good qualifying so far we always managed to have a good race, good strategy. Monaco, Budapest, Bahrain or even Spa.
“[In Japan] we had a really good qualifying but we didn’t really maximize the race. So if we manage to keep the pace we have and keep the package… I don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of engine, what we’re going to use in Austin. Mexico is quite a special one that is really tough for the engine as well, so we still need to have a look at what’s going to happen.
“We know that if we introduce more engines we’re going to have penalties, so at the moment there are quite a lot of question marks over the next couple of races. But for sure with the new spec we have better chances to fight higher up in the rankings.”
Gasly believes there is more to come from the most recent Honda power unit, which was introduced for the Japanese manufacturer’s home race.
“It’s new, so of course we still need to find out how everything works,” he said. “They introduced it pretty early. Ideally they would have liked more time on the dyno to test everything. I think it’s still good, but we can still improve.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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