Brendon Hartley believes that teammate Pierre Gasly's impressive fourth-place finish in Bahrain set expectations for the team too high. The Kiwi struggled in the desert however Gasly was able to show pace that hasn't been visible since.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Hartley expressed that he thought the result, whilst an impressive performance and a positive for the team, flattered the performance of their car.
"It’s very fair to say that we over exceeded all of our expectations in Bahrain.
"Our brief before the start of the season was, ‘Look guys, the first few races are going to be really tough for us’.
"We spent all of this time and energy incorporating Honda and there has been a lot of changes behind the scenes in aerodynamics, we’ve probably taken one step back to take two step forwards later in the season.
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"Then we go to Bahrain and blew all of our expectations out of the water, and probably for everyone else as well they would have expected that again."
Since then, Toro Rosso has fallen back and struggled in the midfield however Hartley believes things will improve soon for the team.
"There is light at the end of the tunnel, an update on the floor and an engine upgrade coming for Montreal.
“Everyone’s motivated, working hard, but I think in some ways that result in Bahrain added all this expectation that maybe shouldn’t have been there.
"But that’s Formula 1 and you see other teams struggling from one week to the other as well."
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Japanese Grand Prix
Overview
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
02:30 AM
Practice 2
06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
02:30 AM
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Sunday 29.03.26
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05:00 AM
Friday 27.03.26
Practice 1
Fri 02:30 AM
Practice 2
Fri 06:00 AM
Saturday 28.03.26
Practice 3
Sat 02:30 AM
Qualification
Sat 06:00 AM
Sunday 29.03.26
Race
Sun 05:00 AM
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points |
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