The Belgian Grand Prix weekend was a good one for Scuderia Toro Rosso, with both drivers qualifying in the top ten for the second consecutive race and both of the Italian team's Ferrari-powered cars in the points at the end of the race, having been genuine front runners before the rain played its customary role at Spa.

Franz Tost: “The main elements are fairly straightforward to identify and we can start with the STR3 car itself. Red Bull Technology has provided us with a very competitive car and the group around Adrian Newey has done a great job. The second element is the engine, as Ferrari has provided us not only with an excellent power unit but also a good group of people to run it with us. We are very happy with our arrangement with Maranello, which indeed is why we have recently extended our supply agreement with them. The third element and the one that is perhaps most obvious from the outside, is our driver pairing. We are happy with both of them: Vettel’s performance and understanding of the demands of his job is increasing at an incredible rate, every time he gets in the car. He is still learning and improving race by race and as for Bourdais, after a difficult period, he too has stepped up a gear in the past few weeks, as could be seen from the fact that, until the very last lap in Belgium, he had out-performed his team-mate.

"On top of this, the team itself, both on the track and in our Faenza factory, has progressed in terms of the way everyone works together. The engineering group, working around Giorgio Ascanelli is doing a tremendously good job. They have developed an excellent understanding of our car, even though we did not get to race it until the Monaco GP. Giorgio and his team are getting the most out of the package. Put all these elements together and you have the reason for our “overnight success.”

FT: “Monza is a track that suits us very well, in terms of our chassis and engine package. At the test there the week before Belgium, we experimented with a new front suspension which seems to bring a performance improvement and in general terms, race tracks with fast corners play to our strengths. Additionally, in Monza, the long straights will be favourable to us, thanks to the power of our Ferrari engine. The car seemed to work well over the kerbs during the test, although we will need to tune our set-up a bit during free practice. It’s a delicate balance between softening the car to help it ride the kerbs, but not doing it too much, which upsets the aero balance in the quick corners. Put these elements together and I think we can approach this race with a degree of confidence.”

FT: “Monza is our home race and the majority of our factory based staff will also attend the Grand Prix, which is a highlight of the year for them and, for the first time ever, the Mayor of Faenza will attend a Grand Prix as a guest of the team. On a personal level, coming to Monza is always special to me, as it was here, quite a long time ago now, that I saw my first ever Grand Prix. There is a special atmosphere here, in the morning when you come into the circuit through the Park, and see the smoke from the camping fires.”

FT: “After this race, we will head to Jerez for the final test of the season and at that time, we will run two new drivers, Sebastien Buemi who comes from the Red Bull driver pool and Takuma Sato, who raced for Super Aguri until the team pulled out of the sport. We are doing it to evaluate them for a possible seat for 2009, given that we know we will need to replace Vettel. Seb will be a hard act to follow, as he is a highly skilled driver and everyone at Red Bull is convinced he has a great future ahead of him.

FT: “Look at the championship position and Red Bull Racing are fifth on 25 points and we are seventh on 17, so let’s keep everything in perspective. The situation can change very quickly in Formula 1, so we have to keep our feet on the ground. Although we are part of the same family, from 2pm on Sunday, we are racing against one another, with both teams striving to get the best possible result for Red Bull. As neither of us has won a grand prix yet, there is still a long way to go.”