Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz: “This morning’s FP1 was a bit scrappy as we had a few issues with some settings and then a spin also compromised my session… But we were able to recover and FP2 was much more positive. Our focus was on the long runs and we worked on setting the car up for Sunday, as we know that in tomorrow’s qualy we won’t be able to do much due to the positions-penalty for changing engine. I’ve really enjoyed it out there today, it’s one of my favourite tracks and even more after today... The top-speeds we reach in the DRS zones and with the tows is pretty big, the highest I’ve ever reached in my life obviously, and it felt great!”
Max Verstappen: “We knew it was going to be a tough day today, and that’s how it turned out to be. We just have to try and make the most out of this situation, optimise the car and try to find a bit of performance… It’s no secret if I say that it’s difficult for us at this track, as here in Monza you need a lot of straight-line speed… But, all in all, I think it’s been a useful day. We tried some different things on both cars and we’ve managed to gather plenty of data to work on tonight.”
Phil Charles (Chief Race Engineer): “We had a bit of a tricky FP1 today, unfortunately Carlos’ session was cut short. But I have to say Carlos’ P2 was much better. His crew worked really well. They turned the car round very quickly and he caught up most of the lost mileage from this morning and in fact collected some really useful long-run data. Max has done a good job throughout the day, building-up his confidence and getting to grips with the car at this high-speed track. We came here expecting this to be a tricky weekend, as this circuit doesn’t suit our package, especially in the short-runs. For this reason, we’ve decided to change Max’ engine, compromising his qualifying session this weekend but hoping this will put him in a better situation for the upcoming races. This means that now both Max and Carlos will be taking grid-penalties, but we are still staying positive. The good news is that the long-runs don’t look too bad and we have collected lots of good tyre information that hopefully will help on Sunday. The track temperature is expected to be higher on Sunday so we will carefully study all that data tonight and come up with the best possible set-up we can for Sunday.”
