Aston Martin Red Bull Racing‘s Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin has lavished praise upon Honda following their successful integration into the Red Bull family at the FIA Formula 1 World Championship pre-season tests.
Red Bull, whose final day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was compromised due to a gearbox problem that limited their Dutch driver, Max Verstappen to just 29 laps, have avoided issues integrating their new Honda power unit, as the Sakura based manufacture had a trouble-free pre-season.
Rocquelin was particularly impressed with the strong “rapport” that Honda had built with the Anglo-Austrian squad as the formative weeks of the Red Bull-Honda alliance seemed to bear the fruits of their labour.
Rocquelin stated “We’ve had an enormously productive period of testing and we’ve learned a great deal about the RB15 and the direction we want to go in as we head into the season.
“Honda have been outstanding throughout, we have had great reliability and the rapport with the Team is exceptional.”
The Head of Race Engineering also praised the work of the Red Bull Young Driver Programme’s newest graduate, Pierre Gasly. While the Frenchman suffered a confidence-knocking shunt at the challenging Campsa corner. However, Rocquelin was pleased with the start the youngster has made to his Red Bull career, as the task the 23-year-old has to match Max Verstappen cannot be envied, in only his sophomore season in the sport.
“It’s also a big task for Pierre coming into a new team and he’s learned a huge amount – about the car and procedurally.” said Rocquelin.
Rocquelin, like many, is now eager to go racing at Albert Park, on the 15-17 March, as he now has full faith in the new-born Red Bull-Honda partnership.
Rocquelin declared, “As for the car, the balance is good, the performance is there and we’re ready to go racing.”
