Toyoharu Tanabe is looking positive ahead of Spa-Francochamps following Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda‘s good performance in the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Frenchman Pierre Gasly finished in sixth place, his third top ten result of the season, while team-mate New Zealander Brendon Hartley finished just outside of the points in eleventh place despite not putting a wheel wrong all afternoon. This was a very positive result for the junior Red Bull team, owing to the relatively poor season and lack of points they have managed to win so far.
The Honda F1 Technical Director said that the team are planning to continue in the same vein for the next part of the season that gets underway with the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of August.
“Our car worked well all weekend and this sixth place and eight points for Pierre [Gasly] is a very good result. It was partly down to how we managed yesterday’s difficult qualifying, when the whole Toro Rosso Honda team did a very good job, just as they did today,“ said Tanabe.
“It was a shame that Brendon [Hartley] missed out by one place on giving us a double points finish. We have had some tough race weekends recently, so it’s good to go in to the summer break having finished in the points in the last two races. We hope to keep that up momentum starting in Spa.”
The team will be hoping to continue this positivity, and have some solid points on the board by the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi in November.
