Friday: Complicated day for Toro Rosso drivers
The day was complicated for Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne as both drivers struggled with the intense heat in Sao Paulo. The Toro Rosso did not perform well under these conditions, but both men know that nothing is decided yet, especially if it rains on Sunday during the race.
Daniel Ricciardo – 15th and 16th:
« We must try to learn from this day, but we must keep in mind that the conditions could be very different when it counts on Sunday. Both sessions could have been much better, but the intense heat is not what suits us best this year. We tried different settings, splitting the work between myself and JEV [Jean-Eric Vergne, editor’s note] to learn as much as possible. We are going to have a long night to evaluate everything and see what the weather will be. In terms of performance, it would have been nice to do a bit better, but I think we still learned a lot. The 2013 tires? They seem a bit different, but nothing dramatic. Let’s say we haven’t found any faults. »
Jean-Eric Vergne – 17th and 18th:
« I don’t have much to say because we seemed to encounter significant difficulties today in getting the car to work well. It was mostly related to the intense heat, which does not suit us, making it more complicated for the tires. We will have to work hard tonight to come up with ideas to improve the car for the qualifiers, even though we expect a wet race on Sunday. The rain might clearly suit us better. We were able to test 2013 tires and had some sensors this morning to see how they behaved. It’s interesting to see this because the shape of the tire is slightly different, which will have an impact on the aerodynamics. »
