Toro Rosso
Max Verstappen: It was a good day today. I built it up slowly in the first practice because it was all new for me, but I felt really good in the car immediately. This gave me a lot of confidence and to finish the morning session in P2 made me feel great! In the afternoon it was a bit of a shame that it rained, as we couldn’t complete as many laps as we wanted, but to still finish in P7 is not bad, I can be happy with my first day driving here in Monaco.
Carlos Sainz: I enjoyed it today and had a lot of fun out there! The first time driving a Formula 1 car in Monaco is always special and something I had been dreaming for many years. In terms of performance, we were not too bad and maybe even better than where I expected to be on my first day here. But it’s still early days and we don’t really know what the others have done. It was a shame that we couldn’t do more laps in FP2 due to the rain, because this is very important for a rookie driver like me but, all in all, the car feels good and I feel confident.
Phil Charles, Chief Race Engineer: A pretty good first day for us here in Monaco, we can be satisfied. Both drivers settled in here really well. We can’t forget that neither of them had driven a Formula 1 car here before and this is a super difficult circuit to come to for a first time and do well straight away! We’re really pleased with both Carlos and Max, they took the right approach, starting off with a little margin and building themselves up through the sessions. We can definitely say that today’s been very positive for us, the car seems to be working okay and as usual we will do our homework and build on all the positives. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to do our long runs in FP2 because of the rain so it will be a bit of a tricky Sunday without that information, but we will work on this tonight and make sure we are well-prepared for the rest of the weekend ahead.
