Toro Rosso: “Honda have Done a Fantastic Job”

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost said that they had expected many more problems from the Honda engine. However, he is very surprised to see the performance of the engine. “They have so far done a fantastic job because they have improved the performance a lot, and also the reliability,” said Franz Tost. He also expects Honda to close in on their rivals in the next season, and help Toro Rosso to compete with the big names.

“And also regarding the performance, because with the new specification we are not far away from the top teams”, continued Franz Tost. “I’m convinced that Honda will improve during the winter months”, he said. “They are doing a very good job, they are pushing very hard.”

Gasly and his team mate, Brendon Hartley have used more than double the three-per-season, allowance of combustion engines, turbochargers as well as MGU-H components and two-per-season allowance of MGU-Ks, control electronics and energy stores.

Franz Tost expects that things will be much smoother from 2021 onwards. “How many power units then at the end will be used next year? I don’t know yet. For me, three power units is wrong from the regulation side”, said Franz Tost. “We should have the possibility to get more but that’s currently within the regulations and I hope that this will change from 2021 on-wards.“

“Honda started a little bit late but I think they’re catching up fast. I would prefer to stay at three because we buy our engines and they’re not cheap so the lower the cost the better”, said Racing Point Force India team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

“Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault are now able to deal with it and I think Honda will be able to do it soon,” said Sauber boss Fred Vasseur. “Now they are in a strange situation in the last part of the season. They are probably more preparing the next one rather than anything else.”