The learning curve.

By Andrew Cutler
February 25 2007

To someone who may be new to how things work in F1, Scuderia Toro Rosso probably looked like they were taking it relatively easy at last week's test session in Bahrain. After all, the team put in relativly few laps and didn't post particularly impressive times.

Not so fast there, pal; a more experinced motorsports fan would say: this is a brand new car and STR is still trying to figure it out.

And that is pretty much the case. “We are still very much in the early stages of development, learning about the car and how to work with it,” said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. “This meant that for the first two days, we did not cover as much mileage as we would have liked, but this is inevitable when learning about a new car."

Vitantonio Luizzi would pilot the STR2 during the Thursday and Friday sessions, putting in 25 and 24 laps respectively on the car. His best time would be a 1:34.187 on Friday. The information that he gathered would help the team "dial in" a more effective mechanical and aero set-up and assess the Bridgestone tires. By Saturday, when Scott Speed took over, the car was able to run for 60 laps. Scott managed to shave a further 0.932 seconds off of Tonio's best lap with a best of 1:33.255.

Now the team has two days to rest up and get ready for the last test session of the off-season, which will be held at the same track starting on Tuesday. It will last three days, after which STR will start preparing for the first GP weekend, March 16th - 18th in Melbourne, Australia