Honda’s Formula 1 engine development for the 2020 season has beenꦰ “even better than last year”, according to AlphaTauri driver Pierre G🌌asly.

The Japanese manufacturer made impressive gains throughout 2019 as Red Bull and the newly rebranded AlphaTauri outfit benefitted, with both teams hoping to improve on the♑ir respective finishes this season.

Gasly ended t🎃he penultimate day of 2020 pre-season testinꦐg at Barcelona second in the timesheets and just 0.225s adrift of Thursday pacesetter Sebastian Vettel.

Speaking about Honda’▨s progress with its latest power unit, Gasly said: “They’re pushing as usual. Already last year they made a big step thr🐼oughout the year.

ꦰ“This year it’s even better than last year, I’m pretty happy we didn’t have any issue between the two weeks, so it’s quite impressive.

“That🎐’s why I don’t want to say too much, because that’s when you get all the shit, but so far everything has been really great, so we are pleased on this side.”

AlphaTauri has got through the first five days of pre-season testing having used just aܫ single power unit, highlighting it🌄s reliability improvements compared to the early years of the V6 hybrid era. 

“The fact at the moment is that we didn’tꦕ have any issue, so it’s good,” Ga🧸sly explained.

“I don’t know that much abou𓂃t the engines and about al𒈔l the tests Honda has done but I’m pleased with the reliability. I hope we can make it through [the season without grid penalties].

“As a driver I want maximum performance first but I 🅷think they are quite confident for the season. That’s the plan and that’s what we are hoping to achieve.”

Asked how much of a step forward AlphaTauri’s 2020 car is c🌟ompared to its predecessor, Gasly replied: “It’s always difficult to put a number on it, but the overall feeling it’s that I kind of feel quite similar to last year in the car.

“I think it’s a little improvemen🍎t, there’s nothing that it’s wꦍay better or way worst but I think the overall package is slightly better.”

Gasly logged 139 laps on Thursday in his final outing of pre-season testing for AlphaTauri, taking the Faenza squad up to 225 laps in total and fifth in the mi💦leage charts for the second week of ru🔴nning.

“I think we have a bit more co💃ming, when we𒊎 put everything together for Melbourne,” he added.

“Overall, I think we have a pretty good car. I think we found some good directions but Melbourne will be a lot different from Barcelona, so I don’t want to get t🌞oo excited. It was a pretty good test.

“I think as a package it’s a good evolution compared to last year. There are 👍a couple of things that are better, some other things we need to work on, but overal♊l I think we have good potential.

🐲“We pushed a little bit more today and the car seems to behave quite well. I’m pretty happy with the test tꦡoday.”