Toro Rosso has reverted Pierre Gasly’s STR13 to its previous aero specification, the Faenza-based squad choosing not to run a new front wing initially installed on the Frenchman’s car for the US Grand Prix.
Limited dry running before yesterday’s qualifying session compelled the team to mount the older front wing on Gasly’s machine, and subsequently remain with it for Sunday’s race.
“In the end we took it off after FP3, so I had a similar package to Brendon,” explained Gasly.
“We didn’t have much time to understand how to extract the maximum from it. I think we need more running, need to analyse a bit more, to get the gains we should get.
“So, we decided to revert to a similar package to the old one, for this weekend.
“In Mexico [next week] we’re going to do some more testing, hopefully, if it’s dry.”
Gasly’s performance in Q1 - in which he clocked in P7 - didn’t suffer from the team running the older spec wing, but both Toro Rosso drivers limited their running on Saturday afternoon given their scheduled grid penalties linked to engine changes in Austin.
“It’s all looking pretty good,” said Gasly. “Like in Suzuka we showed some good performance with the new spec.
“This weekend, we have a similar engine, not gains in terms of performance but slightly different components.
“I think it’s looking really positive. The new spec works well.”
“I don’t want to get too excited but clearly they made a good step compared to Renault [Red Bull’s current engine supplier before it switches to Honda for next year].
“We are still behind Mercedes and Ferrari of course but they are trying to catch up and the work that they are doing at the moment pays off.”
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