The Toro Rosso SRT3 delays its arrival!

Giorgio Ascanelli, the technical director of Toro Rosso in Formula 1, admitted to having fallen further behind schedule on their new 2008 car program. The STR3 is therefore not expected to arrive on the circuits before the Turkish GP.

While awaiting the arrival of the new single-seater, an updated version of the STR2 will start the Australian Grand Prix this weekend. The team was indeed unable to develop a new single-seater in time for financial reasons.

We plan to take part in the Barcelona tests in early April to test the STR3 in real conditions, and then we will have our first start with this single-seater, normally, in Turkey.

Although the times during pre-season testing of the hybrid version of the STR2B were not excellent, Ascanelli does not believe he is disadvantaged by using this single-seater until May 11th, the date of the Turkish weekend.

« I do not believe that we are currently at a disadvantage. The reliability level of the car is excellent, and the competitiveness of the STR2 has increased with each new private testing session. »

« By making progress since January thanks to all the staff, we are well capable of reaching the 14th or 15th position this weekend. »

Ascanelli also announced plans to prepare for the 2009 season as early as possible, to be ready for Melbourne 2009.

« When you have limited resources, you must start as early as possible. For this season, we couldn’t do it, and this is mainly due to my late arrival in the team. But for 2009, it will be completely different, with reliability as well! »