AlphaTauri Formula 1 boss 𓄧Franz Tost is sure his team can get through the entire 2020 season without facing engine penalties as a result of improvements made by 💖Honda. 

An aggressive approach to dev🃏elopment from the Japanese manufacturer in 2019 resulted in a𝓰 number of engine-related grid drops for the four Honda-powered cars across the year, but Tost believes such a repeat will not occur this season. 

Asked if getting throughout the year without incurring engi🐼ne penalties is a realistic target, Tost replied⛦: “Yes. I think so. 

“We have still the same engine in the car and if we finish everything without a failure then one of the first big steps we ma𝔉de already. 

“In the past we 💫always changed the power unit dur♉ing the test, and up to now this hasn’t been the case.” 

ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚTost is confident Honda’💙s latest power unit is a “big step up” compared to its predecessor but stressed it will take a few races to fully understand any potential performance gains. 

“This was a big step up, we are working togethe🦂r the third year with them,” he explained. 

“If you look how the power unit is fitted into the monocoque a♌nd if you compared to the first year there is a big, big d💝ifference.

“Everything Is optimised, from the electric boxes,&nb🌊sp;to the water pღumps, all this stuff, to get a better centre of gravity, weight distribution, and this of course helps, it’s a performance differentiator. 

“And the🐈y made big steps forwards also ꦉfrom the reliability side and from the performance side. 

“How much? This we will see after 2-3 races as we don’t know how much the other teams made. We need the compariꦉson and for this you need 2-3 races.”