Scuderia Toro Rosso had a very busy opening day in
Hungary ahead of Sunday's grand prix as the Italian team
tested out a number of new component updates for the
Ferrari-powered STR5 single-seater, completing
back-to-back component evaluations as well a long run
simulation.In the end
the two Toro Rosso's posted the 16th and 17th fastest
times in today's first free practice session with
Sebastien Buemi getting the nod on his younger team mate
while in the second practice session the tables were
reversed as the Spaniard was 15th fastest and his Swiss
team mate two places further back in 17th place.
Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03)
“It was a useful day, as we
tested many elements and got a lot of information to
analyse. Because we were evaluating some new components
today, I expect us to make more progress tomorrow
morning in terms of improving the set-up and balance of
the car. I did a good long run, which is useful in terms
of Sunday’s race. As far as our pace is concerned, at
this stage I would say the upgrades we have are an
improvement and I hope that translates into a better
qualifying performance than usual. Traction and braking
seems quite good and the main difficulty I am having is
mid corner as the softer tyres had some graining on the
fronts during my long run. We need to think about that
in terms of what it means for the race.”
First Practice Session -
Best lap 1.23.868, pos. 17th, 28 laps; Second Practice
Session - Best lap 1.22.469, pos. 15th, 43 laps
Sebastien Buemi (STR5-02)
“We had a busy programme,
evaluating various parts on the car and in the second
session, I reverted to some of the older components
while Jaime stayed on the new one, to get a clearer
picture. Now we have to study the data carefully,
because at the moment, it is hard to tell what
improvement the new parts bring. We had no technical
issues, so ran trouble free in both sessions, which
means we have a clear understanding of the tyres. As
usual here on the first day, the problem is that you do
not get much grip from the tyres because the track
surface is dirty, so at first we struggled a bit,
although this afternoon on the Option tyre, the grip
level clearly improved. But we still need to work on
improving the rear end grip for tomorrow.”
First Practice Session -
Best lap 1.23.780, pos. 16th, 22 laps; Second Practice
Session - Best lap 1.22.602, pos. 17th, 38 laps
Laurent Mekies (Chief
Engineer)
“We had a few new aero
components to evaluate, some of which we had tested
before and others that went straight on the car today.
It’s good that we got a full day of dry weather, given
that there were a few showers in the surrounding area,
as it helped our aero evaluation work. Apart from that
it was the usual Friday work list: we evaluated the two
types of tyre and they both performed very consistently.
The rest of the time was spent on set-up work, with the
usual trade off of very long runs, which we did with
Jaime and single lap performance.”
