Friday: Unconvincing tests for Toro Rosso

Sébastien Buemi – 9th and 12th:

« This morning’s session went well and we managed to do a few laps with the extreme tires. We weren’t able to use the intermediates because the conditions were never good enough. At least, we got to see how the extremes perform. So, if it rains on Sunday, we’ll know what to do. »

Outside of that, it was a productive day for us. We tried a few small setup changes, and I’m quite pleased with the work we did today. But of course, it’s only Friday. We therefore need to carefully study the data, and I hope we can maintain the good level of performance we’ve had over the first three races. With the tire comparison I made, the difference between the two compounds seems smaller than usual, but it’s still too early to draw a definitive conclusion.

Jaime Alguersuari – nc and 14th:

I think we have a lot of work to do to prepare for tomorrow because I didn’t have a good feeling with the car today. So we need to focus on finding better settings for the rest of the weekend. We will look at the data to see what we need to do.

I drove with different settings than my teammate today so that we have more data to study. I made a comparison between the tires, and the changes made to the hard tires seem good. They are consistent, and I did not find a big difference between the hard and soft ones compared to previous races. It seems that the balance between the two compounds has improved.

Daniel Ricciardo – 8th and nc:

It was my first time on the Istanbul circuit. The session went well and allowed me to understand why drivers love this circuit, with all its undulations and different types of turns. I enjoyed it even though the conditions weren’t ideal. It’s useful to drive in the wet since it’s only the second time I’ve experienced this after a few laps in Barcelona this winter during testing.

I felt good and confident in the wet, and I only ran with the extreme tires. We considered the intermediates, but there was too much water on the track. We made some adjustments to the settings before my second stint and, even though the track was damp, the lap times were improving. So we gathered useful data for this afternoon.