Getting early mileage with Honda is vital – Toro Rosso

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In the round-up: Toro Rosso are anxious to achieve reliable early running with their new Honda power unit.

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Dan reckons it’ll take time before we start to see signs of progress in terms of women participating in motor sport:

What needs to happen if we really want these women to rise to the top is to have a larger pool of talent in the years to come. This will only happen if more girls compete at grassroots, something that is happening slowly but will take a long time to filter through. There are not quick fixes, as with all quick fixes we have seen in F1 for example, they don’t work.

Invest in promoting grassroots racing for both genders and they will make it to the top, in time.
Dan (@Danstimo)

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33 comments on “Getting early mileage with Honda is vital – Toro Rosso”

  1. Was that getting “early”or was it getting “any” mileage….

    1. LOL (and pretty spot on)

      There would be a couple of other teams saying exactly the same thing too.

    2. Indeed TedBell, indeed.

    3. +1

      came to say that I think there was a typo in the headline and should be “getting mileage with Honda is vital”

  2. Some morbid part of me wants to see Honda fail again, just so I can see how miserable they can get.
    They’ve kinda went from bad to worse, and have somehow managed to fail to improve for 3 years in a row, and now I’m curious to see if they can actually make it 4, because that would really be something outstanding.
    Not a good record, but a record nevertheless. :)

    1. And the fact that they won’t be bringing McLaren down with them only makes that prospect all the sweeter.
      In a horrible, schadenfreude kind of way.

    2. I’m pretty convinced that Honda is in for another epic fail. What I’m really going to look forward to is the look on Tost’s, Horner’s and Marko’s face. Can’t wait to see the pandemonium in the Red Bull garage once they realise that it’s most probably Red Bull Honda for 2019.

    3. Wouldn’t it be way funnier if Toro Rosso finished ahead of McLaren?

      1. @crammond..hahaha..I’m sort of expecting this, or more like it wouldn’t surprise me.

        Imagine if the headlines in Nov 2019 read : Red Bull Racing Honda, 2019 World Champions!!

        hahaha

    4. As eternal optimist, and hoping positive wishes go both way, I actually hope they succeed; and the same for McLaren Renault.
      How good would it be if we had 4-5 big teams driving four different PU’s from 2019.
      Bring it on.

      1. That’s the spirit! I like that way of thinking Egnovi, such a refreshing change from the “I want to see them crash & burn” brigade. 👍 We need MORE head-to-head competitors, not less. Hoping an F1 team fails is juvenile at best and is kind of a football mentality.

        1. *PS sorry about the misspelt handle Egonovi*

        2. Thank you.
          No worries.

      2. I like your view and expectation Egonovi, I wish the same for Honda, hopefully with less pressure they can work with clearer minds.

    5. I have the same morbid part, but related to McLaren, maybe because the chances of that happening are much smaller, and deep down that would give me a greater satisfaction.

      But ultimately I share Egonovi’s point of view, which for us fans and F1 would be much better

  3. I truly hope for the best with Toro Rosso and Honda. But, if I’m honest it is a struggle to find any confidence there at all. It would be great to be proven wrong.

    1. I do think that they have the option of “staying” with the 2018 unit, so that would help them get mileage. But that probably means that Honda have been pushing development (and surely Red Bull have been pushing for that even more) so who knows whether the engines will fit, whether they will be able to run without being rattled apart etc.

      I too find it hard to find confidence in them doing it right

      1. Honda has already announced they will keep the end of 2017 season engine as back up since they worked toward reliability at the end of the year and McLaren could finish some races…
        (@bascb is one step ahead, should STR stick with the faster but unreliable 2018 engine? I guess it will be their dilemma all year long)

        Would be miserable to run on 2017 Honda, it was barely a match for 2016 Ferrari (McLaren ahead of Sauber thanks to chassis)…

  4. On paper, Honda Toro Rosso is a certainty for dead-last. At best, they have the 2nd worst driver line-up (ahead of Williams), 3rd worst chassis (ahead of Haas, Sauber) and the worst engine.

    Nothing to lose for them. So, if they somehow reach within 1.5 seconds of the next slowest car, the next slowest car has some serious questions to answer.

    1. @sumedh Too early to jump to definite conclusions about the driver line-up and the chassis.

    2. I’ll take bets on STR not being dead last ;)

  5. I hope the Honda engine fulfills expectations, at least the expectations in Honda and Toro Rosso and not those of they naysayers. The engine used in 2017 sounded better than the one used in 2016 and 2015, so I am expecting an improvement this season as well.
    While I think it is optimistic, I think a few near podium places are possible.

    1. @drycrust Are you’re the guy that talked Toro Rosso into this nonsense?

      1. @flatsix, compared to what I have seen some hardcore Honda fans saying on some forums, the comments that he’s making are relatively restrained by comparison (I’ve seen some even talking about winning races with Toro Rosso, or fantasising that Honda will buy up Toro Rosso and decide to enter their own factory team in F1 instead).

        1. (I’ve seen some even talking about winning races with Toro Rosso, or fantasising that Honda will buy up Toro Rosso and decide to enter their own factory team in F1 instead)

          speaking of which, I do really like their 2008 livery, as terrible as the one in 2007 was

      2. @flatsix No, I don’t work for Toro Rosso or Honda, but if I did and I had talked Toro Rosso into the deal then I’d have had believe winning was a genuine possibility for Toro Rosso with a Honda engine. Maybe not in 2018, but certainy within a few years.
        I can guarantee this: I will buy a Lotto ticket this year if Toro Rosso get a podium.

    2. Not sure if serious, it’s toro rosso-honda! They couldn’t get close to a podium with mclaren chassis, toro rosso chassis is like haas’ roughly, plus worst engine.

  6. Very much true @danstimo. Only if FOM and the FIA invest in grassrouts motorsport will we get a chance to see the most talented people out there ever get a chance at racing at top level. It will help less rich girls as well as boys and hopefully give us better drivers and more fans over the years.

  7. I agree with Renault; don’t change too much (if anything) in the upcoming PU format.
    We already see that the longer you keep the rules unchanged, the closer the teams become.
    The bit that they might want to get rid of – MGU-H – is the most interesting bit, modern, state of the art, relevant for future IC road car engines (I’d even call it the lifeline for IC engines).
    If they want new PU manufacturers in then maybe they can lure them in by giving them ‘hand’ to get up to speed quickly. Why not oblige current PU manufacturers to sell the most technically difficult part of the PU to customer PU manufacturers. e.g. they should all offer the MGU-H of 2 seasons ago (2016) to smaller manufacturers. The ‘old’ teams keep a head start of 2 years and make some money; the small manufacturers can focus on the ICE and other parts.

  8. If it’s mileage you’re looking for, you’re doing it wrong.

  9. I’m still scratching my head as to why Toro Rosso would take Honda engines. It seems so unlikely that they won’t have a disastrous season.

    I’d love to hear your opinions on this one!

  10. I really hope Honda delivers.
    It must be scary for engine manufactures standing on the verge of joining F1 and see such a massive failure.

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