While his fourth-place in Bahrain was in some ways a false-start for Toro Rosso and its new partnership with Honda, Pierre Gasly insists that his sixth-place in Hungary wasn't, the Frenchman convinced that good progress is being made.

I think it's promising," he said, according to the official F1 website. "With Budapest, we knew that it's a track that's a bit less power-sensitive and in a way it would make things a bit closer between everyone.

"Honda did a fantastic job in qualifying in the wet conditions," he added. "The driveability was great. Then again in the race, we didn't have any issues at all.

"It is the best way to motivate them and show them that we have potential and to push them forward, especially coming before the summer break, just to give a big boost to everyone. Hopefully we get more performance on their side for the second half of the season."

The youngster also believes the Japanese unit is more drivable and consistent than the Renault unit he used in 2017.

"On the driveability side since the beginning of the year, I think it's pretty good and more consistent compared to what we had with Renault last year," he is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. "It's more on the throttle and the torque you get from the engine.

"We know where we need to improve, in terms of overall power we need to improve it, but in terms of driveability it's really good," he added.