Honda benefiting from Toro Rosso 'freedom'

Toro Rosso say they have benefitted from giving Honda "freedom" in their engine partnership. The reliability issues that beset McLaren with the Japanese manufacturer look to be a distant memory, as the Fazenda squad continue to impress in the first Barcelona test.

Honda's return to the sport with McLaren soon turned sour with three seasons of poor performance and recriminations on both sides.

But Toro Rosso have had no such problems so far, with Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly only finding running limited by sub-zero conditions in Barcelona.

"I really don't know how the relationship with McLaren worked and we haven't even discussed it to be honest with you," technical director James Key said.

"It's not part of what we're doing, we're looking forwards and looking at our own work.

"Certainly our approach is to try and give Honda all the freedom they need to make improvements on their side.

"In the very short time we had to collaborate on the 2018 engine there has been a few little compromise areas which we've tried to deal with, but fundamentally we just wanted to give them all of the support and freedom they needed to go and get on with the job really.

"I get the feeling that they appreciated that because there were several things they wanted to try and we supported them in that and didn't push them to do anything particularly difficult for the chassis."

Key understands why Toro Rosso's performance may have caught people off-guard, but he suggested it could become the norm to see Honda power impress.

"I think if we looked at the situation last year it's a bit of a surprise, but having worked with them for a while now it's less of a surprise," he said.

"I think looking at the facilities that they've got and the desperate will that they've got to make it work, it's less of a surprise to me now.

"But obviously you never know until you hit the track and I have to say - touch wood - there hasn't been any major issues at all. Any minor stoppages we've had have been on our side.

"They've just been super smooth to work with, we're very inclusive so they attend all our meetings and all that sort of thing so we all know what's going on, and we're working together with them on optimising everything. So it's been very, very smooth so far and I'm sure that will continue."