Hartley lapping up car’s new Honda engine
Kiwi racer Brendon Hartley has been buoyed by the performance of Toro Rosso’s Honda engine at this week’s winter test in Barcelona as he begins his first fulltime season in Formula 1.
Hartley and teammate Pierre Gasly completed a lot of laps without any reliability issues, backing up the feeling the team had since beginning its partnership with the Japanese manufacturer.
He is excited about the prospect of the Honda power unit this year.
“So far it has been working really well,” the 28-year-old said. “They have a good development programme. From Toro Rosso’s point of view — we are a private team — to have full manufacturer support and being the only supplied team has a huge benefit.
“We have a huge team working just for us. I think there are more than 30 people from Honda at this one test for one car.”
While winter testing times don’t provide much of an insight into the balance of power — there are a lot of variables and plenty of foxing from teams — the consensus is that Toro Rosso and Honda passed their first test together.
Hartley won’t know exactly what he has to work with this year but has a bit of an idea. He won’t know where his rivals are at until the first competitive weekend in Australia.
“I think if we score points in Melbourne that would be a job well done,” Hartley explained. “I am not going to stand here and tell you we have a chance of winning.
“The team has set clear targets of making progress during the season but if we score points from the get-go that would be the dream.”
It is too early for Hartley to be overly specific with his own goals this year. The two-time World Endurance champion and Le Mans winner’s approach has changed already. He has moved on from the excitement of just making it on to the Formula 1 grid.
“You get over that pretty quick. Last year was obviously pretty surreal. It was a dream come true to be announced as a fulltime Formula 1 driver but very quickly you move on from that and start setting goals.
“The focus shifts all of a sudden to getting my first points and first podium and obviously goals further on from that.
“You can’t be in dream land all the time. You very quickly move the goal . . . but obviously I am super happy but I am very focused and motivated to make my mark in Formula 1.” Brendon Hartley says he’s keen to make his mark in F1.