Tost: “We Thought We’d Be Closer To The Points”
Toro Rosso Technical Director Franz Tost expressed his disappointment after the opening round of the season, but believes there’s much more to come from his team.
“This first race weekend did not go the way we expected, because, based on the result of our testing in February, we thought we would be closer to the points.We will now analyse the whole weekend in the hope of returning to the pace and reliability we had in winter testing and we are looking forward to fighting back in Melbourne.”
It’s unfair to judge a team on the opening round of the season, but there’s certainly mixed messages coming out of the Toro Rosso team after Sunday’s opening round in Bahrain. It was the Italian team’s first showing without parent team Red Bull Racing by their side.
Following a less than impressive qualifying session which saw Jaime Alguersuari eliminated in Q1, any optimism for the race was dashed.
Sebastian Buemi’s fifteenth position, just two ahead of his team-mate was hardly inspiring, and set a precedent for what was to come on race day.
With five debutant drivers lining up on the grid, both Buemi, and the youthful Alguersuari would have had high hopes of a finish in the midfield, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be for the Toro Rosso team.
What will be most worrying to the Tost and his team is the reason behind Beumi’s retirement from the race. It’s believed to be an electrical fault, but one which will have to be addressed before the next round down under.
The chaos in the first turn hampered the Swiss driver, who was on the back-foot from the outset following a disappointing getaway.
“I got a lot of wheelspin, so I did not get away well and everyone passed me. After that, the first lap was quite hectic and I got a couple of places back.”
A chase with former Arrows driver Pedro De La Rosa followed, until the decision to stick with a one stop strategy came back to haunt him, and he began slipping further behind.
Alguersuari, who had surprised many with his disappointing qualifying performance ran a fairly consistent race, even overtaking his own team mate midway through the race.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the team, posting a fastest lap-time inside the top ten, which will encourage both drivers, and add the self-belief that they’re capable of picking up some valuable Championship points this year. The Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, the two Mercedes GP Silver Arrows and even current World Champion Jenson Button both failed to post a time as quick as Alguersuari, who will have used this disappointing weekend as a positive exercise, adding another finish on an unknown course to add to his CV.
What Tost will be looking at is the rival teams looking to get one over on his navy and red machines. The new teams, most notably Lotus and Virgin GP have both scouted Toro Rosso as an existing team that they’re looking to outperform, but on this showing, it appears there’s quite a way to go yet.
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