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Toro Rosso awaiting huge Honda upgrade

Toro Rosso awaiting huge Honda upgrade

19-09-2018 16:30
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Jake Williams-Smith

Brendon Hartley says that the Toro Rosso team are eagerly awaiting Honda updates as the team look to improve upon a poor outing in Singapore with both Hartley and Pierre Gasly finishing well outside of the points paying positions.

Both Hartley and teammate Gasly are likely to incur a grid penalty for a new engine for the Russian Grand Prix however the team is hopeful that the upgrade will be a significant one, making it worth the pain of starting towards the back of the grid.

Hartley confirmed that the team had not received a significant update since the Austrian Grand Prix back in July. He will be hoping that the new updates continue to improve the team's performance.

“We haven’t had an update for a long time, it seems like the other teams have improved a bit more than us,” Hartley admitted to media after Singapore.

“The last update we brought, which was Austria, didn’t bring us much performance. That was a long time ago, so we are definitely craving another.

"There’s one from Honda and from Toro Rosso on the cards coming soon."

Reports in Italy suggest that the new upgrade from Honda will put the engine ahead of Renault and within touching distance of Mercedes and Ferrari's power unit output in terms of horsepower.

"They are pushing hard, we have confidence in what we see," the Red Bull team principal said.

"The investment that we see going into the programme, the quality of personnel that are involved, things are very much moving in the right direction.

"Only time will tell, but I think you'll inevitably see more changes this year which is all part of the development process for 2019 and beyond."