‘Really good’ Honda gains please Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly described Honda’s performance as “really good” during the opening Formula 1 pre-season test, following the marque’s first experience with Red Bull.

Red Bull has ended its 12-year alliance with Renault in order to join Toro Rosso in receiving Honda power units for 2019.

A Honda-powered car has not taken a podium since the Japanese manufacturer returned to Formula 1 with McLaren in 2015, but the company displayed both performance and reliability gains through 2018.

Gasly, meanwhile, has already spent two years working with Honda, having competed for the company’s Mugen team in Super Formula in 2017, prior to his 2018 in Formula 1 at Toro Rosso.

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Red Bull’s RB15 ran reliably last week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and while both Gasly and Max Verstappen shied away from the top of the timesheets, the Frenchman was buoyed by progress.

“I think it’s really good,” said Gasly on Honda. “Looking at Toro Rosso, they have been really fast with the Honda engine and we are happy with it as well.

“There is still some work to be done but I think Honda did a really good job over the winter. Still, a few things to come [in the second test] but the first four days have been really good.

“The overall feeling for the car is really good even if it doesn’t show it on the lap times – we are testing and we know what we’re doing so I’m pretty happy.”

Gasly completed 238 laps during his first two days in the RB15 – truncating one day when he crashed at Turn 12 – but was encouraged by the mileage amassed as he began preparations for his Red Bull debut.

“This is only my second pre-season test, but last year was pretty smooth and this one was pretty smooth,” he said. “I managed to do a lot of laps in the car which is important to me, get used to it and get comfortable as well with my new engineer and do some productive work for the team.

“So far we managed this good work and to analyse all the data from this week, stayed focused, a lot more work for [the second test] and try to be as ready as possible for Melbourne.”