Pierre Gasly says he will keep pushing Toro Rosso to develop its 2018 car for as long as possible, despite being wary that the team will have to divert resources to its 2019 package.
Toro Rosso, which linked up with Honda this year, had only minor updates in Spain, with larger upgrades planned for both Monaco and Canada, as it attempts to keep pace in the development race.
Toro Rosso slipped to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship as a result of its non-score at the Spanish Grand Prix, and now holds a slender two-point advantage over Sauber.
Gasly, though, has emphasised it is “way too early” for Toro Rosso to begin diverting resources to 2019 and that it must try and remain in the midfield hunt this season.
“From my side I’ll keep pushing them until the last race to bring me as much performance as I can,” he said.
“It’s way too early to think about next year. I’m more like someone who tries to focus on what’s happening right now and maximise the potential we have now.
“Of course at some point more and more resources will go to next year’s car, but what I’m trying to focus on is to make the best of what we have.
“We see the other teams are competitive, Renault did a big step, Force India did a huge step in Baku, you can see the others are improving massively and we need to make sure we are improving as well.
“We should stay focused on this year, we saw we had good potential if we extract everything from the car as we did in Bahrain.
“That’s what we should target to do every weekend even if it’s difficult but I think the most important on my side is keep pushing them till the last race of the season to maximise our package.”
Gasly added that Toro Rosso should aim for a top-10 grid spot at each Grand Prix, though accepted the strength of its opponents makes the task tricky.
“When you look at the others you have the top six, Force India in Baku was untouchable, then Haas when they maximise everything they have a strong package, Renault is becoming strong as well,” he said.
“[When this happens] Q3 is something really tough for us but it needs to remain our target to motivate everyone, it's what we should target, but we know it's not going to be easy.”
