Pierre Gasly: ​​The Honda evolution will bring positives

The Japanese Grand Prix this weekend at Suzuka will be the meeting of the year for Honda. The engine manufacturer of Toro Rosso, and future supplier of Red Bull in 2019, is counting on its home event to put the new evolution of its V6 turbo/hybrid Power Unit, briefly glimpsed in Sochi, back on track.

Si Pierre Gasly et Brendon Hartley had been forced to return to the old specification during the weekend, the Faenza duettists should take advantage of the work accomplished since then on the bench by the Japanese engineers to demonstrate the progress made.

“I clearly think there will be a performance gain, admits Pierre Gasly in the Japanese paddock. As I said in Sochi, I don't know exactly how to quantify it, but it will be positive.

You just have to play around with it a little more to find finer settings to really get everything out. But it should offer more performance. In Sochi, the performance on one lap was already better and our Friday was positive. I hope it will be similar this weekend. This will be the first time we will use it over an entire weekend.

In terms of reliability we have all winter to work on it. Let's see how it will be, but it should be a good step forward. »

Looking towards 2019

Next season, Pierre Gasly will find the Honda engine manufacturer, but within the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. The Frenchman, who will be supported by Max Verstappen, believes that the Dutchman should not take much time to adapt to the Japanese bloc.

“At such a level, Max, after five or six rounds, will be used to this, underlined Gasly in the podcast of the F1. In terms of feeling, what you feel in the car, the flexibility of driving...

When you're such a driver in F1, you don't need a lot of time to get used to it. It's more about how to learn to communicate and work with them and with Japanese culture, which is different.

You have to get used to it. It's an advantage. Afterwards, in terms of driving, I don't think it will take Max much time. »