Gasly sure Honda will “give everything until the last race” in F1 2021

Pierre Gasly is convinced Honda will “give everything until the last race” in 2021 and will not simply give up because it is pulling out of Formula 1 at the end of the year.

Even though the Japanese manufacturer announced in October last year that it had decided to quit F1 at the end of the upcoming season, Honda has promised to go all out and has worked on developing a brand new engine for 2021.

Honda has insisted that despite its impending exit from the sport, it remains determined to power Red Bull to the world championship in order to end its final year of their partnership on the highest possible note.

And Gasly, who drove his Honda-powered AlphaTauri car to a shock victory at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, indicated he has already seen some encouraging early signs regarding its power unit development.

“I think they have good plans,” Gasly said at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December. “I know a few things which sound good, but I don’t want to speak for them.

“I’m waiting to see on the lap time and on the track, what it does before [getting] too excited. But I know how much Honda is working and I’m confident it’s not because they are leaving at the end of 2021 they will give up before. That’s not part of their mentality.

“They’ll push and give everything until the last race. But I think they are consistently trying to improve the package. [In Abu Dhabi] Max [Verstappen] got the pole ahead of the Mercedes today, the four Honda cars were in Q3, we reached a pretty decent level.

“Obviously if we have more for next year, that would be even better.”

Gasly will have a new teammate for 2021 in the shape of Honda-backed Formula 2 graduate Yuki Tsunoda, who will become the first Japanese driver to take to the F1 grid in seven years when he makes his debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix next month.

The Faenza squad is aiming to improve on its seventh-place finish in the 2020 constructors’ championship this year and will reveal its AT02 challenger on 19 February.