Scuderia Toro Rosso showed little competiveness under
the floodlights in Singapore last night with Jaime
Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi, who were both lapped by
the chequered flag,
finishing in twelfth and fourteenth places respectively
in the Ferrari-powered STR5 single-seaters.
It means that the team from Faenza in Italy has now gone
seven races without scoring a single point, a barren run that
stretches back to the European Grand Prix at the end of
June.
Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03) Pos. 12th
“I am satisfied that I finished
the race, but to be honest, it was possibly the most
boring race of my career. I was stuck in a train of cars
and there was virtually nothing I could do. It should
have been a good opportunity for us to score points
today, having qualified eleventh, but it went wrong
before the start with a coolant leak on the car, which
meant I started from pit lane after the others had gone
by. At that point, my hopes of having a good day
disappeared. At least I managed three overtaking moves.
Looking on the positive side, I think our car has
improved in terms of performance and it’s not so bad to
start last and finish twelfth.”
Sebastien Buemi
(STR5-02) Pos. 14th
“It was a very tough race. I
made a good start, but on the opening lap I had a
contact with Kobayashi, which I think might have done
some damage because from that point on I had a lot more
understeer. So we decided to stop and change the front
wing to be on the safe side and at the same time we also
changed the tyres. I came out behind Petrov and spent
most of the race behind him. Later on, I had to pit
another time to pressurise the hydraulic system and we
again changed tyres, which meant I was able to catch and
pass Jaime and close on Petrov again. I tried to pass
him, I didn’t manage it and I was caught by Kubica, who
was on fresh tyres. Another pit stop was needed, where
we fitted the soft tyres and after that I was able to do
some good lap times. I am disappointed because I think
that, without the difficulties I had, tenth place should
have been within my grasp. However, generally the car
has improved which is encouraging for the next race.”
Franz Tost (Team
Principal)
“Unfortunately, on his laps to
the grid, we noticed there was a water leak on Jaime’s
car and as we were unable to fix it before the pit lane
closed, he had to start from the pits. This was a shame,
as it meant he was unable to make the most of his best
qualifying performance of the season, which had seen him
secure eleventh place on the grid. After that, he drove
a good race. As for Sebastien, on the opening lap, he
told us he thought he might have a problem with the
front wing, after making contact with another car.
Therefore, we called him in during the first Safety Car
period, changing his tyres and the nose section. Later
on, he was unable to get past Petrov, so we decided to
bring him in again for fresh tyres, after which he
passed his team-mate. He was still unable to catch
Petrov and when Kubica, on fresh tyres passed both our
cars, we again brought Buemi in for new tyres, in the
hope this would give him a performance advantage, but
the strategy did not work. Overall, we should have got a
better result, as the car had performed well throughout
the weekend. Unfortunately, this evening a variety of
circumstances kept us out of the points positions.”
