Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz: “Not the easiest of starts to a race weekend, I think everyone had a few difficulties out there due to the high track temperatures. I struggled a bit with rear-tyre overheating, but we were able to work around this and at the end of the day we can say we have a decent baseline to build on during the weekend here in Budapest. I really enjoy driving here. I like the many corners and the stop-and-go nature of this circuit. Obviously in an F1 car the track feels a bit smaller and tighter, but this just makes it more challenging and that’s what I like.”
Max Verstappen: “We started the day off well, taking it easy, learning the track and setting-up the car. It was quite a good first session, we were able to try a few different things on the car and we knew in what direction we wanted to go. In the afternoon my first run wasn’t perfect…it was so hot out there! And then, in the in-lap, I suddenly started to feel something was wrong with the car. Unfortunately this was due to an electrical problem which cost me quite a lot of FP2 track time. I was able to get out on track again but it wasn’t for long, as the session was red-flagged… So not the best of afternoons for a rookie.”
Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer): “All in all, it’s been a useful first day for us here in Hungary. Max unfortunately had an electrical problem in FP2, which knocked him back a bit. However, a part from this scrappy afternoon for him, it’s not been a bad day. He had a productive morning and he will get better tomorrow. Carlos has had a good day. He was able to work through his program and has done a good job. He’s happy with the car and that’s a good sign going into tomorrow. Our main focus once again is on the tyres. The track temperatures here today have been very high, so dealing with this has been tricky. Both drivers have had rear-tyre overheating, so it will be key to work on this overnight in order to manage it in the best way possible during the rest of the weekend. I’d like to add the fact that our sister car, Red Bull, is looking very strong – they seem to have made a big step forward. This is a good indicator that we should also be able to do well here, so we just need to make sure we optimise everything to achieve a good result this weekend.”
