| Re: The Malaysian GP
STR "paying price" for late launch
Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers admitted after free practice in Malaysia that the team still has work to do to unlock the potential of the STR-2, despite the four-day test in Sepang last week.
Vitantonio Liuzzi ended the day 17th overall, just under 0.8s faster than his team-mate Scott Speed (20th).
And while the Italian reckoned some progress had been made, STR's late launch for its controversial car (the subject of protests and arbitration in the continuing customer chassis row) has hit the team hard.
“We have found some improvements on the car in the slower sections, where the car is beginning to react quite nicely," said Liuzzi.
"We tried various mechanical changes that seemed to work.
"As we have said a few times already this year, we are still paying the price for not having tested much in the winter, but I am sure that the arrival of [new technical director] Giorgio Ascanelli brings us a plus and a lot of information and so I think we should be able to make a step forward quite soon.”
Speed added that he was glad to have had last week's test, after a day of problems mired him down in 20th.
“First off in the morning, I had to run the T-car, because it had never been used before today and that meant the usual stuff with a new car, like sorting out the pedals and the driving position," he said.
"Then I had to sort out my own race car so I only really ran properly at the end of the second session.
"At first sight, my prognosis for here is the same as in Melbourne, meaning we are still quite a bit off the pace.”
Source = ITV F1 |