Second Barcelona Test Recap

Scuderia Toro Rosso was back at Barcelona for the final pre-season test session, which ran from Feb 28th -March3rd. Once again the STR8 ran flawlessly, logging 425 laps without any technical or mechanical 'gremlins' striking. This time around Daniel and JEV alternated days behind the wheel.

Thrusday and Friday both saw rain, which probably hindered the squad's ability to accomplish everything that they wanted to. However, it did afford Daniel Ricciardo hisfirst opportunity to drive the new car in the wet. JEV logged 59 laps in Thursday, mostly testing aero configurations. Daniel's Friday stint - in which he did 61laps - included full pit stop practice for the crew. Dry weather over the weekend allowed both drivers to run full race distances, with JEV (114 laps) trying out suspension options on Saturday and Daniel (91 laps) doing more set-up evaluations on Sunday.

After all was said and done, Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies was pleased with how the three pre-season tests went for STR.

“As the STR8 is fundamentally a new car, with plenty of crucial changes for example on the suspension, on the aero side and in terms of the architecture of the car, we had a very big work load to tackle this month in Spain. Even if we did not win any records for high mileage, we got through a lot of work over the three weeks on track, during which the car ran reliably, with no serious issues. Apart from our car, the other new element was the Pirelli tyres, which have different characteristics to last year’s. Getting a full understanding of how the new rubber works is something that will take longer than we had expected. Alongside these challenges, the growth of our team has involved the introduction of some new engineers and a revised organisational structure and that too was being tested over these twelve days, so it’s been a case of a very different team and a very different car.”