F1 News
Gasly: Honda targeting Mercedes benchmark
Jake Williams-Smith
Pierre Gasly says that Honda has switched its target to Mercedes in the power unit development race.
After switching from Renault to Honda power for 2019, Red Bull appears confident in the upgrades the Japanese manufacturer has made so far this season, including a reliability and power update introduced in Spain.
Ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, the French driver praised the progress Honda has made since its partnership with Red Bull and, having driven a Honda-powered car last season with Toro Rosso, said they were closer to their rivals in 2019.
"Not too far. At the moment, Ferrari clearly stands out in terms of straight-line speed. The one we need to target, Mercedes, is sort of more or less in the middle," he told Motorsport.com of the power unit progress from last season.
"Quite a big step, I would say in every area. Performance-wise we have quite a lot more than we had last year.
"Reliability, things run pretty smoothly since the beginning of the season for us, so honestly everything is improved.
"For sure, there's still quite a step especially compared to Ferrari that are clearly the fastest down the straight, but we know they keep pushing and more performance will come also from the engine."
