Tost expected better in Melboure for Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost is disappointed at his team’s performance in Australia, where they failed to pick up points and driver Pierre Gasly suffered an engine problem.

Gasly’s engine problem comes after successful winter testing where Toro Rosso had no engine problems after their switch from Renault to Honda engines.

Tost said: “As we had a successful test in Barcelona, we expected of course a much better race result in Melbourne, but for various reasons we couldn’t get it together.

“For sure it didn’t help that it was raining in FP3, because we would have needed a dry track to evaluate the tyres and to find out if our set up changes were going in the right direction.

“Pierre had a problem in turn three (in qualifying) so we had to start from the back of the grid.

“Pierre had a good start and gained some positions, but unfortunately we faced a power unit issue that forced him to retire.

“As for Brendon, he locked the front tyres in braking for the first corner – he got a flat spot and we had to call him in to change the tyres and from then onwards he was at the back of the field.”

Honda F1’s technical director Toyoharu Tanabe added: “It’s disappointing that Gasly had to retire with an MGU-H problem.

“We now have to investigate the precise cause and then we have a few days of hard work to ensure we do not have a repeat of the problem at the next race.

“It was a tough start to the season, however we have to move on from this and keep a positive frame of mind as we immediately start preparing for the second round of the championship.”