Ross Brawn: “The Red Bull – Honda marriage is starting to bear fruit”

For the first time this year, the four single-seaters powered by the V6 turbo/hybrid Power Unit Honda arrived in the points at the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend. A new example of the progress made by the Japanese bloc, with the new leading service of Max Verstappen, obscured by his 5″ penalty taking away a podium that would have been deserved.

But it's especially in the clan Toro Rosso that the picture improves as the Grands Prix progress. Enough to place the Faenza team today with 16 points on the clock, one unit behind 5th place held by Racing Point F1.

“We can be satisfied with the number of points collected and the way we managed the race, underlines Daniil Kvyat, 7th in Monaco. Over the last few weeks, we worked hard to see where we needed to improve and what I needed to go faster, and we found it.

Now we just need to repeat this every weekend so we can keep scoring points. The car is performing well, so we need to continue developing it in the same direction. »

An impetus also highlighted by Ross Brawn, Motor Sports director of Liberty Media, who recalls the preparatory work of Toro Rosso in 2018 with Honda management. “Marriage with Red Bull, preceded by last year's "engagement" with Toro Rosso, is starting to bear fruit, indicates the former technical director of Ferrari.

The Milton Keynes team is largely responsible for this, but the contribution of its sister team in Faenza is very important, both for what they did last year and for how the team has functioned this season. Additionally, between the two teams they have a group of young drivers with different levels of experience who are proving to be very competitive.

Alexander albon turns out to be the biggest surprise and most successful of this year's rookies. In Monaco, the Thai driver proved that he is smart and fast, especially when it comes to tire management, and racked up no less than 40 laps on the softs he used in qualifying. »

Honda will have to confirm its progress from the next Grand Prix in Canada (June 7-9), on a track where the engines are generally put to serious use.

Discover the full report and analysis of the Monaco Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in the Principality, in issue 2218 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.