F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Gasly: 'Mega car but time lost on the straights is crazy'

Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly believes the lack of grunt of his Honda engine down Silverstone's straights has taken away the gains achieved by the STR13 handling qualities.

Gasly's car was the single Toro Rosso to run in qualifying on Saturday after a suspension failure and massive crash sidelined Brendon Hartley for the session.

The Frenchman underlined his car's performance but lamented its lack of straight-line speed, pinning its deficit on its Honda engine.

"The car was mega, but with the long straights at the moment it’s crazy how much time we lose," he said.

"We knew that on a track like this, with Turn 1 and 9 being flat-out we’ll struggle. We’re talking about nine tenths compared to Force India and Sauber, so yeah, very difficult to fight.

"But in the corners, looking at the GPS, we are faster and it looks pretty good, but just on the straights at the moment we are really slow.

"Objectively we have no pace, not coming from the car, but from the engine."

The 22-year-old qualified 14th on Saturday, a result that was actually beyond his expectations.

"We were actually surprised to go into Q2 because we lost so much time in the straights since the beginning of the weekend," he admitted.

"You cannot recover nine tenths in the corners. In the end it was a good day, but the race will be difficult.

"In normal conditions at the moment we need to find much more straightline speed. In terms of the car I don’t think we can extract much more potential."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Sad Colapinto laments two crashes in one day in Sao Paulo

Williams suffered a bruising time on Sunday in Sao Paulo, with Alex Albon unable to…

38 mins ago

McLaren: No regrets over timing of Norris pit stop in Sao Paulo GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about their…

2 hours ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

3 hours ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

4 hours ago

Sainz left puzzled by double crash drama in rainy São Paulo

Carlos Sainz was left scratching his head after a disastrous Sunday at the Sao Paulo…

5 hours ago

Alonso pushed through agonizing pain to complete Sao Paulo GP

Fernando Alonso braved both physical agony and mechanical challenges in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,…

7 hours ago