If it was last years Honda, I would have thought it was running out of energy store, or the H not producing enough 'top up', but they seem to be saying this is not the case this year.
If it was last years Honda, I would have thought it was running out of energy store, or the H not producing enough 'top up', but they seem to be saying this is not the case this year.
It is not just about engine power (williams, FI) . We will be quite happy if they were 4 fastest team. Hope both side's updates give TR this place and we can see some Lucky podiums
Except TR would not run off money this time. I think now they can afford car update untill midseason before switching focus to next season car. Spec B is possible. Also, no one gonna copy their mechanical and aero, because very specific for honda and they are the sole user (RB still not confirm atm)
Gasly:
"It was a very important experience to be alongside Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas on the grid, they have been in Formula 1 for a long time and this is my seventh Grand Prix, I have a lot to learn, but Bahrain has helped me a lot," he said. French in statements published by the news agency GMM.
"Marko said I did a great race, but I already knew that, the smile on Helmut's face was something I'm really glad to see."
"Honda has made a lot of progress, but it's hard to compare them with other manufacturers, I do not want to tell them numbers, but obviously they've taken a big step forward."
Tanabe:
"We went through a hard time, we need to develop our power unit step by step, our desire is to be a leading rider, we are a F1 racing team, so I think our desire is to be strong," Tanabe said in an interview. by Chris Medland, published on the Honda website.
"I think so," Tanabe said when Medland asked him if "being a strong team" meant "winner"
"I think the challenge is huge, the power unit is very complicated compared to the previous era of the power units, the real engine is very complicated with the electronic part and the propeller itself," he acknowledged.
"I think that the relationship between Toro Rosso and Honda is going well, the communications and the conversations, not only technical, but also the relations with the operations make us work together"
Ricciardo:
"It helps your chances of appearing attractive to Red Bull - at least right now it has nothing to do with me, I say this because I do not have a contract with the team for next year that there could be changes next year and it's great for Honda ", has indicated that Ricciardo in declarations for the American web portal Motorsport.com.
"Obviously they invested a lot in recent years and it did not work for McLaren, but it's great that Toro Rosso is doing well now"
Marko:
"Before making the decision to work with Honda, I thought it could be a successful package once we were able to do everything we could, the right direction and the journalists should know that we are brave"
Verstappen:
"I have not thought about that and to be honest, it's not up to me, any other team, if you have more power, it's better, but it's still soon, of course, so you'll see, and it was great to see Pierre doing a great turn, I think the whole package seems pretty decent ", said Verstappen
You're right that one can never know, but the pre-season interviews with Honda personnel were positively dripping with a sense of relief that they no longer had to work with McLaren.
Moments after scoring Honda’s best result since it returned to F1 in 2015, on the Japanese manufacturer’s second start with Toro Rosso, Gasly thanked his team for an “unbelievable” job and declared “now we can fight”.
That was a reference to Alonso saying the same thing after the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, when he finished fifth for McLaren on its first race with Renault power after three difficult seasons with Honda.
“It was just a little joke – that is it,” said Gasly. “I just I think we need to give credit back to Honda.
“In the end, they had a really tough three years with McLaren and to finish fourth in our second race with them was just amazing.
“It was a way to give back to them credit because they are working really hard. They need credit for the hard work they are doing.”
Gasly stressed that the message was not meant to ridicule Alonso and revealed that he had “some tough message” from Spanish fans on social media, which he called “quite crazy”.
“I have huge respect for Fernando,” Gasly added. “Fernando is one of the best drivers in all time in F1, one of my idols.
“It was nothing related [to him personally] it was a comment for Honda because I think they deserve the credit.”
Honda reacted to a difficult first race with Toro Rosso with modified parts for Bahrain to improve reliability, and it is planning on stepping up the development of the engine’s performance in the coming weeks.
China’s Shanghai circuit features a very long back straight, one of the longest in F1, which could leave Toro Rosso more exposed as the weakness of Honda’s energy recovery system has previously left it low on top speed.
Gasly said his car was “fantastic” as Toro Rosso topped the midfield battle in Bahrain but admitted “it’s not going to be as easy” when asked by Motorsport.com what it could expect this weekend.
“The track layout is for sure not one of our favourites,” he added. “But still you need to have a really strong car in the middle part of the track.
“I think we can still expect to be competitive. We were pretty slow in Melbourne, we were very competitive in Bahrain, even faster than expected, so it’s difficult to know exactly where is the performance of the car.
“We are going to be in the fight for the midfield and hopefully on top of it.”
Agreed, and I think I said elsewhere that they look like most have been employed on the basis of one of these new fangdangled motor sport degrees.sn809 wrote: ↑11 Apr 2018, 15:09Ron was essentially a one man show, after they kicked him out, they were floundering about-still are to some extent forget about working with another culture. I would say things to the effect of not knowing where if they were facing forward or backwards but that might be considered rude.
To be fair, Ron was kicked out because he failed to deliver what he promised, his reason for coming back was to lead the team back to the top, get a title sponsor, both sides he failed.johnny comelately wrote: ↑12 Apr 2018, 10:43Agreed, and I think I said elsewhere that they look like most have been employed on the basis of one of these new fangdangled motor sport degrees.sn809 wrote: ↑11 Apr 2018, 15:09Ron was essentially a one man show, after they kicked him out, they were floundering about-still are to some extent forget about working with another culture. I would say things to the effect of not knowing where if they were facing forward or backwards but that might be considered rude.
Couldn't agree more about Dennis,R shortcoming,s but just comparing then and now, two versions of not how to do it.Ground Effect wrote: ↑12 Apr 2018, 12:37To be fair, Ron was kicked out because he failed to deliver what he promised, his reason for coming back was to lead the team back to the top, get a title sponsor, both sides he failed.johnny comelately wrote: ↑12 Apr 2018, 10:43Agreed, and I think I said elsewhere that they look like most have been employed on the basis of one of these new fangdangled motor sport degrees.sn809 wrote: ↑11 Apr 2018, 15:09Ron was essentially a one man show, after they kicked him out, they were floundering about-still are to some extent forget about working with another culture. I would say things to the effect of not knowing where if they were facing forward or backwards but that might be considered rude.
Ron was credited for bringing Honda back, but in reality it was Martin Whitmarsh that brokered the deal. Ron was the one that vetoed Honda supplying a second team, Red Bull, which kept Honda on the back foot, due to less data gathering, because he was afraid? Imagine if in 2016 Honda started working with Red Bull as a 2nd team along with Mclaren. It would have been such a different story, Milton Keynes would have been buzzing! Mclaren may have even been able to poach some key staff, who would have been attracted to working with the works team. Honda only got the opportunity to work with a 2nd team after he had left, the collapsed Sauber deal.
Also Ron had a bad standing in the FIA, and was unable to influence much to the teams advantage, unlike Ferrari, who did a lot of behind the scenes games between 2014-2015, that helped them find their feet.
Ron has an everlasting legacy in Mclaren and F1 as a whole, but his last stint left much to be desired.