Gasly: Honda not too far away from Mercedes power

Pierre Gasly reckons that Red Bull’s engine manufacturer, Honda, are beginning to close the gap in power between themselves and Mercedes on track straights, saying the units being produced are “not too far” away from that of the performance of the Silver Arrows.

Mercedes have dominated the 2019 season so far and have came first and second in every single race, with a record-equalling five one-two finishes. Their performance has not been reliant on speed on straights, though, with Ferrari believed to hold the biggest power on those sections.

Gasly believes Honda have made big strides forward to try and match the current championship leaders.

"Not too far. At the moment, Ferrari clearly stands out in terms of straightline speed. The one we need to target, Mercedes, is sort of more or less in the middle,” the Frenchman responded when asked how far away Honda are from Mercedes.

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"Quite a big step, I would say in every area," he said of the improvement from last year when he used Honda units with Toro Rosso.

"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."

After five races, Gasly is fifth in the driver’s championship with 21 points recorded.

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