2018 Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 Team - Honda

[Ground Effect]

The midfield from Mclaren to TR is a one second spread. That's very tight. I see the order moving back and forth depending on the track. Once Honda brings their performance update, they should make a jump up the midfield a bit. The cars aren't dead last and are clearly a good step above Sauber. It looks like they will be battling it out with Williams.

The issue is, everybody (well, Renault at least) is gearing up for engine 2 and the performance it will bring. The midfield is littered with Ferrari & Mercedes power. Renault have proven since 2016 season that their quite astute at unlocking performance with mapping, software etc. The reliability Honda have achieved is remarkable, Paul Di Resta was saying on Sky that if this is how they started 2017, the engine would still be in a Mclaren.
Let's see how it goes, I was hoping for a showdown for 4th place between Mclaren, Renault & STR.

[etusch]

Additionally two rookie driver

[Thunder18]

The midfield fight is where it's gonna be, the it'll be a cracking season and hopefully TR will be right in there.

"Pierre Gasly lost a chunk of time on his fastest run in FP2 after finding his engine was in the wrong setting. Gasly finished the session 17th, with just eight-tenths of a second covering P8 to P18."

https://www.crash.net/f1/feature/892194 ... -gp-friday

[dren]

The midfield from Mclaren to TR is a one second spread. That's very tight. I see the order moving back and forth depending on the track. Once Honda brings their performance update, they should make a jump up the midfield a bit. The cars aren't dead last and are clearly a good step above Sauber. It looks like they will be battling it out with Williams.

The issue is, everybody (well, Renault at least) is gearing up for engine 2 and the performance it will bring. The midfield is littered with Ferrari & Mercedes power. Renault have proven since 2016 season that their quite astute at unlocking performance with mapping, software etc. The reliability Honda have achieved is remarkable, Paul Di Resta was saying on Sky that if this is how they started 2017, the engine would still be in a Mclaren.
Let's see how it goes, I was hoping for a showdown for 4th place between Mclaren, Renault & STR.

I am expecting the Honda update to be larger than the Renault update. Honda has more ground to cover. We'll see how it pans out. I don't think they'll be challenging Mclaren and Renault, but they should up in the midfield from where they look to be now.

[loner]

and then the car still a fat cow YAWN

[etusch]

I wonder how the race will go and also wonder a real track performance too

[etusch]

Brendon Hartley: "We missed a little bit of track time this morning in FP1 but we made up for the lost time with a good second session. Managing tyres is going to be a big topic for all the teams but we got some good data on both the long and the short runs. It looks like we're in the battle with the midfield, but there's still a bit to improve before qualifying tomorrow."

Pierre Gasly: "The first Friday of the year... it felt good to be back in the car to start the season properly! We tested many things for Qualifying and the Race but we still don't really know what the weather will be like both tomorrow and on Sunday - it looks like it might rain. Let's see how it goes, at least we did many tests and now we need to analyse the positives and negatives from today. I think tomorrow is going to be tight in the midfield, so we really need to put everything together - it can make a big difference on the starting grid."

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer): "It was a very productive day, FP2 more so, and we managed to cover a lot of laps and our full programme. In FP1, with Pierre we managed to cover our full test plan quite successfully, but with Brendon, a few operational issues meant that we lost some track time which obviously isn't ideal with him trying to learn the circuit, especially the first race of the season, in a new car. Fortunately, he recovered well in FP2. I think the big thing for us is understanding the tyres, as we seem to be suffering quite heavily with tyre overheating, especially in the last sector - it's something we certainly need to work on. The weather forecast isn't looking great tomorrow, so maybe the tyre problems are not such a big issue for qualifying, but obviously we need to understand it for the future. In the background we were covering lots of mechanical tests and we've been working a lot for the race so we've got an awful lot of data gathered that we need to go through tonight in preparation for Sunday - we have to see what the weather brings tomorrow."

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "At last, the 2018 season has begun. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Australian fans, which I last experienced here ten years ago, there was a good atmosphere for the first day of practice.

"Overall, things went smoothly today, with practice held in perfect weather. As this was the first time that both our drivers have driven this track, our target was to let them get in as many laps as possible. On the Power Unit front, we concentrated on adjusting the drivability and the energy and fuel management, to suit the characteristics of the track. We were able to complete almost all our programme and it has been a good preparation for tomorrow."

From pitpass

[bigblue]

Just for your info, you can also find the above directly at https://scuderiatororosso.redbull.com/en_INT.

[Sayeman]

The midfield from Mclaren to TR is a one second spread. That's very tight. I see the order moving back and forth depending on the track. Once Honda brings their performance update, they should make a jump up the midfield a bit. The cars aren't dead last and are clearly a good step above Sauber. It looks like they will be battling it out with Williams.

The issue is, everybody (well, Renault at least) is gearing up for engine 2 and the performance it will bring. The midfield is littered with Ferrari & Mercedes power. Renault have proven since 2016 season that their quite astute at unlocking performance with mapping, software etc. The reliability Honda have achieved is remarkable, Paul Di Resta was saying on Sky that if this is how they started 2017, the engine would still be in a Mclaren.
Let's see how it goes, I was hoping for a showdown for 4th place between Mclaren, Renault & STR.

But TR probably had to compromise the aero to ensure that reliability. Mark hughes was saying how TR has the biggest radiator on the grid. Bad for speed

[HPD]

Additionally two rookie driver

Yes, first time they run here.

[loner]

But TR probably had to compromise the aero to ensure that reliability. Mark hughes was saying how TR has the biggest radiator on the grid. Bad for speed

yeah i bet STR car's body has a deficit of 5 seconds alone without the PU

[Snorked]

I hope they can get the tyres sorted, they lost loads of time in the last sector on their fastest (combined sectors) possible lap:

During attack lap, it was thought that deployment (energy regeneration) had run out, as it was sector 3 that the two lost time together. Albert Park circuit is hard on fuel consumption, and Honda suffered from deployment in sector 3 last year.

However, Toyoharu Tanabe Honda F1 Technical Director answered "There is no relation (deployment)" and continued.
"I guess we could not get together well, including warm-up of the tires,"

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=2018 ... 0-rcg-moto

[loner]

if Pierre Gasly lost a chunk of time on his fastest run in FP2 after finding his engine was in the wrong setting
Hartley must be slow then.

[etusch]

It looks like so but I don't know why I like hartley more :O

[godlameroso]

Gasley's lap times in P2
1 P 16:06:00
2 1:49.035
3 1:26.895
4 1:49.613
5 1:41.533
6 1:26.491
7 1:42.151
8 1:26.365
9 P 17:24.041
10 1:44.046
11 1:25.945
12 2:01.025
13 1:26.260
14 P 11:40.541
15 P 2:14.493
16 1:53.994
17 1:30.918
18 1:30.829
19 1:31.268
20 1:31.226
21 1:31.232
22 1:31.891
23 1:31.775
24 1:33.743
25 1:31.355
26 P 1:49.693
27 1:37.088
28 1:29.958
29 1:30.523
30 1:31.784
31 1:30.225
32 1:30.289
33 1:29.786
34 1:31.206
35 1:30.301
36 1:29.867
37 1:29.448
38 1:29.632
39 2:24.514

Hartley's lap times in P2
1 P 16:05:26
2 2:03.341
3 1:26.781
4 1:48.265
5 1:26.708
6 1:54.443
7 1:43.115
8 1:28.462
9 2:00.395
10 1:27.229
11 P 14:22.922
12 1:52.368
13 1:25.925
14 1:47.038
15 1:25.981
16 P 10:50.131
17 P 2:15.961
18 1:48.505
19 1:30.586
20 1:30.484
21 1:30.431
22 1:30.337
23 1:31.557
24 1:30.428
25 1:30.697
26 1:31.416
27 P 1:48.518
28 1:41.473
29 1:30.372
30 1:31.052
31 1:30.438
32 1:29.770
33 1:31.262
34 1:32.924
35 1:29.599
36 1:29.266
37 1:32.616
38 1:29.445
39 P 1:48.166
40 1:35.854
41 2:29.167

Hartley needs to work on his consistency. They have the pace to tangle with Renault. McLaren and Haas are out of reach ATM.