2018 Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 Team - Honda

[McMika98]

Throughout the race the car was good. Bad strategy ruined it and im certain that Gasly must have killed his tyre locking up, the FIA feed is just crap. He was gaining on Ocon and gapping Sainz but then after the restart he was losing seconds per lap to Ocon. Bear in mind he drove longer with supersoft tyres on high fuel, he should have been safely home with the soft. Either that or his battery failed, he was clipping at unusual places.

[GhostF1]

While it may have eclipsed Renault in the peak power stakes, I think the Honda is still the worst in "sustained power" engine mode. The Renault has poor peak power production, but good recovery, while Ferrari and Mercedes are in a another league altogether.

The other issue is the integration of the PU and chassis. I don't think Toro Rosso have ever got on top of this, so their tyre wear has usually been higher than average. This is not helped by the drivability of the Honda engine, which likely contributes to excessive tyre wear.

Where's this come from? It's actually been noted in a lot of previous races the STR is actually light on its tyres, it's not a known trait that it eats tyres. Gasly lost his tyres at the end, likely from pushing too hard, too quickly after the pitstop. He smashed passed the Saubers and set a fastest sector time.
I don't think the result has anything to do with the PU. If anything, that kept them higher than usual. Neither does the Honda have poor driveability?? That's baseless. Both drivers have said it's quite easy to drive and an improvement over the 2017 Renault.
What happened here is a direct result from a large gap since the last chassis update on the car and an awful pit strategy..
It's been far far too long, hopefully next race in Austin, they have a decent chassis upgrade on hand so they can move the entire package forward and their strategists have been given a stern wake up call.

[McMika98]

Hartley isnt fit to take the seat next year. How can u lose 4 places in first corner? Just not got the knack. Alex albon would be a decent choice to replace him. Car it seems was slower than Force India but maybe as quick as Haas.

[Bill]

Str was never a good car in the high speed corners , failer to cover force India was there undoing,they were on the softer tyres they should be the first to stop is not complicated the same mistakes was made in Singapore waiting for the tyre to reach the cliff before they pit

[HPD]

Gasly: “We put the soft tyres on so I enjoyed a couple of overtakes, but after 10 or 15 laps the soft tyres had massive blisters and it was even difficult to see on the straight because the rear tyres were square..

It is a disappointment. But this car is not to lead the midfield

[bigblue]

Haven't seen this elsewhere, but crash.net says

Pierre Gasly was left frustrated after Toro Rosso was not allowed to change an engine setting on his car from qualifying despite initially receiving approval from the FIA to do so. Toro Rosso was told to change his car back to its qualifying spec on the grid, causing a late rush for the team. Gasly finished the race 11th as both he and teammate Brendon Hartley dropped down the order after qualifying in the top 10 following long opening stints on the Supersoft tyre, which caused them to be undercut by both Force India drivers.

[Jaisonas]

Gotta say though, from the few onboards during the race, the engine and the upshifts sounded very clean

[Marti_EF3]

It was a horrible race, when Sainz passed Gasly, I shut off the TV. What a disaster, no hopes for nothing good until 2019. They've run out my patience

[Sieper]

Give it one more race, they,ll have gasly’s engine sorted out then and will introduce new aero. Could still be cool.

[gshevlin]

Given how slow both cars appeared to be during the race, i was left wondering whether Honda had reverted to the older specification of powerplant for the race. the end positions of both cars suggested a level of competitiveness on a par with the middle of the season.

[Bill]

When Perez pitted Gasly was behind Grojean by 3 seconds, by the the time Gasly pitted he was behind Gro by 8.5 seconds the pit guys were sleeping total inept the loss of James key is showing

[amho]

Although is not so easy to jodge pace just by looking at scenes that gasly was following a sauber but it seems that they have very poor acceleration out of corners, I don't know if they are traction limited or poor engine map or even poor gear ratio selection....

[ispano6]

It was fine until the rear softs degraded to the point they were losing time. It was a strategy mistake in not going with mediums. I think it's safe to say that following Mercedes tyre choice is wise. If anything, Gasly should have been pitted at the last virtual safety car with supersofts because the tyres were spent by then and the Supersofts lasted a good 15 laps. The soft degradation in hotter temperatures probably wasn't expected from the power/speed boost.

In all fairness to the team, the lack of running in Free practice due to engine issues and fuel system prevented the team from being better prepared with Gasly's car. In hindsight perhaps the team celebrated too early Saturday and didn't think to plan a medium tyre strategy. We missed out on a points haul that could have taken us up a spot. Instead Force India nailed it and got good points. My wife pointed out a photo of Takuma Sato with Strategist Ayao Komatsu of Force India from this weekend and I figured he play a part in getting his team ahead, damn him haha.

[Eryngii]

Haven't seen this elsewhere, but crash.net says

Pierre Gasly was left frustrated after Toro Rosso was not allowed to change an engine setting on his car from qualifying despite initially receiving approval from the FIA to do so. Toro Rosso was told to change his car back to its qualifying spec on the grid, causing a late rush for the team. Gasly finished the race 11th as both he and teammate Brendon Hartley dropped down the order after qualifying in the top 10 following long opening stints on the Supersoft tyre, which caused them to be undercut by both Force India drivers.

This Japanese article has details.
http://www.topnews.jp/2018/10/07/news/f1/174666.html

[bigblue]

This Japanese article has details.
http://www.topnews.jp/2018/10/07/news/f1/174666.html

Thanks. Sounds like a complete mess from the FIA. Imagine if it had happened to Hamilton or Vettel, there would have been uproar.