MX23RW : Wednesday, November 27 15:41:36| >> :600:368484:368484:

Honda: 'Toro Rosso partnership to be more equal'

Honda thinks that it will have a "more equal partnership" with Toro Rosso in 2018 after three ill-fated years with McLaren.

Honda has suggested that it will have a "more equal partnership" with Toro Rosso in 2018 after three ill-fated years with McLaren.

The Japanese marque's Yusuke Hasegawa admitted this week that Honda was "not ready" to link up with a "top team" like McLaren back in 2015.

So with that relationship now ended, Honda will power the Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso cars next year, and Hasegawa said that engineers are already hard at work.

"We've been the ones making the majority of requests so far, but it's fair to say this will be a more equal partnership than it was with McLaren in terms of leadership," he said.

"Obviously Honda as a company is huge but we had little recent F1 experience. So from that point of view McLaren was still leading us. That won't be the same with Toro Rosso."

Hasegawa said that Honda will begin the Toro Rosso relationship with an engine that is based on the one used by McLaren this year.

"It will remain the same power unit concept from this year, so we are able to use the current one as the starting point," he confirmed.

However, he said that with lessons learned from the McLaren era, Honda will not be setting any early targets for 2018.

"We have to provide Brendon [Hartley] and Pierre [Gasly] with the performance they need," said the Japanese.

"Of course they are very good drivers but they are also rookies in F1 so it's too early to say what we can target from a constructors' championship point of view."

McLaren finished 2017 in ninth place with Honda power, while Renault-supplied Toro Rosso were seventh.

ID:312950: cacheID:312950:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:2384:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Spanish GP 2014
Read Next:
Hartley had 2018 contract for 'weeks'
>
rhs 2.0


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!