2018 Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 Team - Honda

[Macklaren]

Oh btw Mclaren is the worst Renault powered car now. Hartley beat one of them in a fair fight. So no need to gloat.

Who did Hartley beat?

[McMika98]

My bad. I thought Hartley was ahead of Vandoorne. I had no hope of them even remotely getting to points such was their pace. The race however was entertaining as always.
Barcelona will be interesting, they should be more competitive there i think. Midfield battle now getring absolutely tasty.

[Talisman]

STR’s problem is that teams like Williams, Sauber and to a lesser extent FI that were all at sea at the beginning of the season have started to figure their cars out and get quicker rapidly. STR are hamstrung by their lack of power which means that they have to go light on downforce with the resulting problems on tyre useage. Honda’s upgrades can’t come soon enough.

[techman]

the car traction was bad, no grip. it was like the williams they stroll was complaining of lack of straighline speed even with a mercedes, they need to investigate further.

[McMika98]

STR’s problem is that teams like Williams, Sauber and to a lesser extent FI that were all at sea at the beginning of the season have started to figure their cars out and get quicker rapidly. STR are hamstrung by their lack of power which means that they have to go light on downforce with the resulting problems on tyre useage. Honda’s upgrades can’t come soon enough.

Yeah right. Same as the Mclaren isnt it, who have the slowest top speed. The Renault engine is so weak no. Like i said many times, these guys cant extract any performance out of the US tyres which even Mercedes struggles and we saw what happened to the Redbull yesterday. The car has more or less the same rear as last year and gone for a higher downforce front end and a complex bargeboard area, so what makes you think they are now all of a sudden running low downforce. Low drag is what RedBull were running this week, they were one of the fastest in the straight line.

[Talisman]

When underpowered cars have a decent top speed a compromise is clearly being made. Unless you think STR have a drag/downforce coefficient shaming far better funded teams they are trimming downforce to compensate for the lack of power.

Why do you think they are consistently having problems switching the tyres on?

[Bill]

Quick Reply the tires are --- that why fia has given pirelli permission to modify the thread by 3mm,str are suffering the most in cooler conditions

[techman]

honda needs to work on a race map better. the qualy if decent and TR gasly could have got in Q2 easily but its the race mode consistency they need to work on. i also believe TR suffers more on cooler conditions

[baybars]

Following statement from Tanabe confirms that they got passed on straights due to lack of power. The lack still seems quite substantial with respect to the long straights.

"The whole package lacked top speed today, more so than on the first two days and we must now look at the cause for that. However, it is clear that part of the reason for this is that we are still slightly down on power compared to our rivals. We knew this and are working hard on development to improve, while not compromising the reliability of the PU components."

So, will people still continue to go around here and tell that Honda is better than Renault?

I don't know who said that. I see that everyone aware of situation and also from start of season TR said that Honda a bit behind Renault. Chassis and conditions change game. We saw both renault works team passed two redbull here. And what we saw at Bahrain shows that there is a power gap with renault tolerable by chassis.

Toyoharu Tanabe (Honda F1 Technical Director): "After a difficult first two days, both drivers did well to stay out of trouble in the early chaos and managed to move up the order, with Pierre running inside the top ten in the early part and again towards the end until the coming together with Magnussen. In the end, we benefited from the mistakes of others for Brendon to take his first F1 point. The whole package lacked top speed today, more so than on the first two days and we must now look at the cause for that. However, it is clear that part of the reason for this is that we are still slightly down on power compared to our rivals. We knew this and are working hard on development to improve, while not compromising the reliability of the PU components."

https://www.pitpass.com/61636/Azerbaija ... Toro-Rosso

[Bill]

Problem with the Japanese is that they are too diplomatic,if you say something like slightly down on power some people are going to cling on to that and hang you by your own word,STR has yet to acknowledge its shortcomings in public all they say is we need to improve,but right now the overwhelming problem is tyre usage it account for most of the 3s deficit

[ivanlesk]

So, will people still continue to go around here and tell that Honda is better than Renault?

Yes, with one of the worst chassis and drivers. The car was the slowest in the slow speed sectors. My heart sank when even Sauber was pulling away in the narrow sections where you would have thought that engine power would be a non factor. It wasnt the straight line power that was the issue, every car would be within few tenths before the long straight due to the piss poor traction.
Oh btw Mclaren is the worst Renault powered car now. Hartley beat one of them in a fair fight. So no need to gloat.

Dude chill out... I wasn't gloating in any way. Personally would like a lot to se TR & Honda in front.
I haven't mentioned nothing about MC, but obviously that hurts alot people around here. And can't write 5 post in row without mentioning MC TR and Honda in same post.

I was just referncing Honda personnel statements where they clearly say that they are AT THIS moment (not future) still behind which is completely contrast to people opinions / hopes / comments aourn here.

[Thunder18]

Bizarre how the race engine mapping had them down on power. Gasly was up to 7th at one point only to be down to 13th a few laps later!! That's annoying. 3 cars fall out and Gasly could've had another 4th place.

[zac510]

Honda have definitely been very open and honest with their technical information and that seems to have endeared a lot of fans to them, who are now talking up the perceived horsepower.

[PhillipM]

It's no real surprise, this has been common with Honda before - they seem to be able to bring a decent boost for qualifying (Mclaren were qualifying relatively well last year) - but just don't have the power in the race - the TR's were getting passed on the straights easily, whereas when every other car got overtaken, the very second it got in the tow from the overtakee they could pull back alongside and fight into the corner.
It doesn't look like they were harvesting any earlier than the other teams so it must just be pure power and turned down ICE for reliability. However, that's been far better this year, so maybe they'll start turning the wick up a little in the mapping as they get more data.

[HPD]

--> Video

“Kevin is the most dangerous guy I have ever raced with,” blasted Gasly. “He literally put me in the wall at 300 kph at the re-start and completely ruined the race. I would have been in the worst case P10 at the last restart, so this is one thing.
“The Safety Car came out, we pitted and were P11. I knew points were on the table. I was going to pass him just before the Safety Car line 1, went on the side, and he just put me in the wall right in the middle and took half of my floor out.
“Both my front wheels went in the air, broke my right mirror and bent my steering as well. After that I was just trying to survive until the end of the race. There was almost no point to race after that."