Tonio's Turn

By Andrew Cutler
September 1 2007

With the Monza test session disrupted by a rain-shortened third day, Scuderia Toro Rosso would be one of nine teams that opted to take advantage of a fourth day of testing. Vitantonio Liuzzi would get the driving duties once again, giving him more time to prepare for the upcomming Italian GP.

After only putting in 40 laps on day three, Tonio would nearly double that mark with 79 laps on Friday. His best lap would be a 1:24.760, good for sixth fastest on the charts.

For the team as a whole getting ready for the next race was only part of the program this week. The other part was trying to deal with the reliability issues that have bitten them nearly all season long.

Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies appears to be satisfied with the results from the past four days. "Like all the teams, we have been working on a special Monza aero package. In our case, this consisted of new front and rear wings as well as a new engine cover. So we spent time doing back-to-back tests to evaluate these elements. In addition, we worked on fine tuning car set-up for the Italian Grand Prix while also working on car systems and gearbox strategy, as well as the standard tyre comparison work."