Brown: Honda doing good job with Toro Rosso

McLaren chief Brown: Honda doing good job with Toro Rosso

Wednesday 7 March 2018 15:30

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has applauded the "good job" Honda have done with Toro Rosso, with the Japanese engines enjoying new-found reliability in the back of the Faenza team's cars. Toro Rosso have been among the most regular runners in pre-season, stark contrast to McLaren's previous struggles.

McLaren ditched Honda for Renault for 2018, having languished towards the lower reaches of the grid in their three years together.

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However, the timing does not appear to have been so wise. Toro Rosso completed more laps than any team in the first test and the Honda unit appears to have narrowed the gap to Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes in terms of performance.

Brown says he always knew Honda would finally make the required step-up, but remains confident McLaren have made the right decision, despite suffering four mechanical failures across the first day and a half of the second test.

"I know there’s a lot, as you’d expect, at least early in testing a lot of comparisons between them and us," Brown said.

"But Eric [Boullier] and the full team are focused on our programme and very confident we are going to have a good season.

"They’re doing a good job, we know they’re a great company and it was just a matter of time until they’d see some improvements and they’re having a good testing, and good on them."