Toyoharu Tanabe felt the Italian Grand Prix was a difficult race for the Honda-powered Scuderia Toro Rosso team, with ‘unfortunate incident’s preventing both Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly from scoring points.
Heading into the race weekend, Gasly’s power unit was changed to a spec four upgrade, meaning he was always going to start towards the back of the grid thanks to penalties, but despite this he started well and was close to the points when he was forced through the gravel trap at the exit of the Ascari chicane by Lance Stroll.
Kvyat was on course for a top ten finish after gaining a number of positions by pitting under the virtual safety car, only for the Russian to pull off with a mechanical issue, something Tanabe says Honda are investigating.
“Today’s race was difficult for us, with some unfortunate incidents,” said Tanabe, Honda’s F1 Technical Director. “Gasly started from the back of the grid as planned with penalties for taking our Spec 4 PU.
“He moved up a few places, but then after he was pushed off the track by Stroll, he dropped back down the order and finished just outside the points. As for Kvyat, he had to retire the car at the side of the track and currently, along with the Toro Rosso engineers, we are investigating the exact nature and location of the oil leak.”
Tanabe says there will be plenty of information and data to work through from all four Honda-powered cars at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, which he says will benefit them for the rest of the season, starting with the Singapore Grand Prix later this month.
“We still acquired plenty of data from running all four cars with our Spec 4 PU, which will be useful as we prepare for Singapore,” said Tanabe.
