Pierre Gasly hopes for a reliable start to pre-season testing when it gets underway at the end of February, as his Scuderia Toro Rosso team get their first track action with new engine suppliers Honda.
The Frenchman will be competing in his first full-time campaign in 2018 after five race starts with Toro Rosso at the end of 2017 after replacing Daniil Kvyat, and he acknowledges that there will be a lot of work to do across the eight days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to prepare for the new season.
Gasly hopes that Honda can hit the ground running so that Toro Rosso can get everything done ahead of the first race of the season in Australia at the end of March.
“Testing will be very busy with a lot of work to do, especially as we have a new engine partner,” said Gasly on planetf1.com.
“The important thing at the test will be to have a reliable package so we can do as many laps as possible and get a good understanding of where we are with the car, the engine and how the package is planned to evolve.
“There are only eight days of testing before Australia and that really isn’t very much.”