Honda investigating Pierre Gasly issue after spotting 'strange data'

Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri car in the garage — Photo: © LAT Images

Styrian Grand Prix

Honda investigating Gasly issue after spotting 'strange data'

AlphaTauri driver sat out the whole of FP2

Ian Parkes

Friday 25 June 2021 19:15

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Honda is currently investigating 'strange data' from its power unit that consigned Pierre Gasly to the AlphaTauri garage for the entire second practice session ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix.

Gasly had enjoyed a superb first practice outing at the Red Bull Ring, finishing second quickest behind F1 championship leader Max Verstappen.

The Frenchman, however, did not even suit up for FP2 due to the nature of the issue.

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Chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls said: "During the break, Honda spotted something strange in the data on the PU and did not want to take any risks.

"We chose to investigate the issue fully and therefore Pierre didn’t run in FP2.

"It’s an unfortunate situation because FP2 ended up being almost completely dry, so Pierre did lose out, but at least the performance was looking strong in the morning and I am confident he will be able to repeat it in FP3."

Gasly was naturally left frustrated, particularly given the dry running when a forecast suggested there was an 80 per cent chance of rain, leaving the team with only Yuki Tsunoda's feedback and data to rely on.

"There were some things we wanted to try during FP2 so it’s a shame to have not been able to do that," said Gasly.

"But at the end of the day, there’s nothing we can do about it and we just need to look forward to tomorrow now.

"Yuki didn’t feel as comfortable in the car this afternoon as he was in FP1, so we need to go away and analyse all the data we have ahead of tomorrow, then we can piece everything together for qualifying.”

After a strong FP1 from Tsunoda at the end of which he was fifth quickest, the young Japanese driver was a second off the pace in 15th in FP2.

Eddolls added: "For Yuki, again we completed a typical FP2 plan, but unfortunately he was not able to show his full potential in his first push on the softs, meaning the final classification is not fully representative.

"Putting it all together we know there is more to come tomorrow.”