Assessment: Toro Rosso is far from the mark!

At the dawn of this new season, Toro Rosso is positioned right in the middle of the pack between the four title favorites plus Williams and Force India, and on the other side, the new teams. Only 13th and 16th, Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi did not maintain the momentum from the winter testing sessions.

Mobilization is in full swing ahead of the next race in two weeks in Australia, and the expected work is significant. The objective is to improve the overall setup of the car with a particular focus on tire usage.

Jaime Alguersuari – 13th:

« It’s positive to have finished the first race of the season where new refueling regulations came into effect. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, especially for me and also for the team. We should soon be able to fight for points, ranging between seventh and eleventh place during races. We must work hard to achieve this. As for my physical condition, I feel that I am in much better shape than last year because I had very little time to train. We now need to analyze all the data and see how we can improve. One thing is certain, we need to qualify better. »

Sébastien Buemi – 16th:

I’m not sure what happened at the beginning, but I skated a lot, so I didn’t make a good start and everyone passed me. After that, the first lap was quite eventful. We decided to stick with a one-stop strategy with an advantage over de la Rosa, for example, but those who took new tires ahead of me were faster, so they passed me. After changing tires, I got stuck behind Jaime Alguersuari and was unable to overtake him, and three laps from the finish, the car stopped.

Franz Tost – Team Principal:

« This first race weekend is not what we expected because based on our results in February, we thought we would be closer to the points. Buemi suffered a hydraulic problem on Friday and was therefore unable to find the best setup. This carried over into qualifying. As for the race, we need to analyze why Buemi had a bad start and now we have to find out why his car stopped, without warning, which we assume to be an electrical problem. At least Alguersuari finished the race in thirteenth place. We will now analyze the weekend in the hope of regaining the pace and reliability we had during winter testing. »