Honda unreliability struck Toro Rosso in the Formula 1 season-opener, with the team confirming that an MGU-H failure caused Pierre Gasly to retire from the Australian Grand Prix.
It was a relatively trouble-free winter test in Barcelona, with the new Toro Rosso-Honda partnership clocking the highest mileage of any team, albeit using three power units across the two weeks of testing.
That run of reliability, however, came to an end in Australia with Gasly retiring from the race with an MGU-H failure after just 13 of the 58 laps. He was seen slowing through the final sector of the lap with smoke exiting the rear of the car before returning to the pits.
It ended a disappointing season-opening weekend for the Frenchman. He started from the back of the grid after a mistake in qualifying before his early retirement.
Despite the difficult weekend, he had reasons to be cheerful after the race; “It wasn’t a great start to the season for me today,” said Gasly. “After Turn 12 the engine just switched off, it came back on again but I was really slow and I couldn’t upshift. I tried to return to the pits and then I was told to stop.
“It’s a shame, especially since we didn’t have anything go wrong in testing. I think everyone in the team is disappointed to have an issue at the first race but we need to look at the positives and learn from the negatives to come back stronger in Bahrain.”
An MGU-H failure was confirmed by Honda F1 technical director Toyaharu Tanabe.
“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,” said Tanabe.
Adding to the tough weekend for the team, Brendon Hartley compromised his race by locking up into Turn 1 on the first lap. He subsequently pitted early because of a flat spot which left him at the back of the field.
“It wasn’t a great race for me today,” said Hartley after finishing 15th. “I locked the brakes into Turn 1 at the start and flat-spotted the tyres, so I had no choice but to pit because it was probably the biggest flat spot I’ve ever had.
“Then on the second stint I had a puncture, so it was game over from that point onwards and I think I had a little bit of damage on the rear from that, so I was driving around by myself all day.”
