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Tost thinks Honda has "exceeded expectations"

14:50, 05 Nov 2018

byBobby Vincent

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost believes that Honda has "exceeded expectations" as the team's power unit supplier this season.

Many were unsure how Honda would cope with Toro Rosso after a disastrous three-year spell with McLaren; which saw numerous reliability woes.

But Honda's progress with Toro Rosso has encouraged Red Bull, and they have decided to end their relationship with Renault and switch to the Japanese manufacturer for the 2019 season.

"They have so far done a fantastic job because they have improved the performance a lot, and also the reliability," Tost explained to Crash.net. "They have exceeded expectations with regards to reliability, because we thought we would have much more problems but to be honest, we haven't had any major issues.

"And also regarding the performance, because with the new specification we are not far away from the top teams."

Toro Rosso has taken the penalties for changing power units throughout the season, but Tost has been more than impressed with their new engine specification.

“I’m convinced that Honda will improve during the winter months,” Tost added. “They are doing a very good job, they are pushing very hard.

“How many power units then at the end will be used next year? I don’t know yet. For me, three power units is wrong from the regulation side.

“We should have the possibility to get more but that’s currently within the regulations and I hope that this will change from 2021 onwards.”