Toro Rosso drivers hail “great first day” with Honda

22 Feb 2018

Toro Rosso drivers hail “great first day” with Honda

Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley have praised the Formula 1 team’s new engine partner Honda after a successful first day of running with their 2018 car.

The Faenza-based squad became the only team on the 2018 grid to be supplied by Honda after McLaren’s split from the Japanese engine manufacturer, following a disastrous three-year spell of poor reliability and performance.

But Red Bull’s junior outfit appeared to face no issues on its first shakedown test as part of a filming day at Italy’s Misano circuit, with Gasly tweeting: “Great filming day with Toro Rosso and Honda. Trouble free day! No joke.”

The Frenchman’s teammate Brendon Hartley added the test was “very wet” but said “the new girl ran super smooth.”

On Wednesday Toro Rosso leaked a picture of its own car ahead of its official unveiling on the morning of the first day of pre-season testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.

The image was shared after a picture of the car leaked on social media earlier in the day, with the team responding on Twitter: “Why settle for a leaked photo, when you can have an original.”

Details about Toro Rosso’s STR13 were hard to fully ascertain given the angle of the image, but the car’s front-end and nose appears a similar shape to designs run by McLaren and Red Bull in recent years.

Toro Rosso’s Halo - the controversial cockpit protection device mandatory on all cars in 2018 - is painted in the same blue as the car livery and featured a small aerodynamic fairing.

2016 GP2 champion Gasly, who will contest his first full-season in F1 this year, also shared an image of his new helmet design for the upcoming campaign.