Pierre Gasly has revealed he lobbied the bosses at Toro Rosso to change the engine after qualifying at the Canadian GP.
The former GP2 champion was forced to switch to an old specification Honda unit after a problem in practice and was only 16th fastest, making an early exit in Q1.
After the session, the junior Red Bull team would opt to put a fresh engine in his car resulting in a grid penalty, but he would make the most of it moving up from 19th on the grid to 11th, just missing out on a point.
“I said, ‘Okay, I want the new engine in the car’. Otherwise, it will be just too difficult a race and it is better to take the penalty here,” he claimed.
“I pushed everyone, I pushed with Franz [Tost, team principal], I pushed with Jonathan [Eddolls, chief engineer], I pushed with Tanabe-san [Honda technical director Toyoharu Tanabe], I pushed with everyone.”
For the 22-year-old there was also another motivation for wanting to avoid taking a penalty at the next race.
“We had more chances to finish in the points [in Canada] and also for France it is better because we don’t start far back,” he said, with the race at Paul Ricard the first in his homeland since 2008.
“With the upgrade, if we have a good car there, we can probably expect to have a good weekend,” Gasly added.