Friday: Toro Rosso is competitive with intermediate tires
Even though the rain made an appearance today at the Yeongam circuit, the Toro Rosso team drivers, Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, are optimistic because they realized they were quite competitive with the intermediate tires - even though it is always difficult to have a clear idea of the hierarchy on Fridays as teams test different things. For his debut with the STR6, Jean-Eric Vergne was not able to drive a lot - only 9 laps covered, but he was still thrilled with the experience and looks forward to driving this car again in Abu Dhabi.
Jean-Eric Vergne – 13th (Free Practice 1)
I drove this single-seater for the first time during the free practice 1 session. The last time I drove a Toro Rosso was in Abu Dhabi last year for the young drivers’ tests. I have to admit that I wasn’t too happy this morning when I opened the curtains and saw the rain. I found this session quite difficult because of the rain on the track, even though I’m pleased with what I did, because I didn’t have any accident and I was able to enjoy it. It’s hard to judge what I did, because normally in these kinds of sessions, you do two stints with time in between to analyze the data and see where to improve, but today the weather didn’t allow us to do that. So, I couldn’t compare my stints, and I’m certainly not comparing my performance to others. Regardless of the track conditions, I’m thrilled to have had this opportunity, even if I didn’t cover many laps. But I will be better prepared when I return to the car during the free practice 1 in Abu Dhabi.
Jaime Alguersuari – 6th (Free Practice 2)
I only drove this afternoon today, but I think it was a good thing. The track was never completely dry, and I tried twice to fit the dry tires, but it didn’t work, and we could see how long it took for the track to dry. In the rain, I must say I had very good sensations, even though we can still do better with the car. You can feel that it has potential, and I was particularly impressed by our pace with the intermediate tires. It’s always difficult to know the truth about what others are doing because you don’t know the tire situation and the fuel load. Apparently, there’s a chance it might rain a little again tomorrow, and in these conditions, as I said, I’m rather optimistic.
Sébastien Buemi – 5th and 9th
« It was a good day, and the car was very reliable, even though, due to the conditions, we couldn’t cover many laps this morning. We encountered the rainy weather we left behind last year, and I felt good in the car in the rain today. The track takes a long time to dry, and it’s important to know that if it rains again tomorrow. If we made some mistakes today, they will be useful lessons on how to set up the car for tomorrow. We figured out when to switch from wet tires to intermediates and back, and when to switch to dry tires, so at least we have a good picture of the situation. We had no technical issues, so I think we should be able to make progress tomorrow for what has been a useful first day of testing. »
