Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz
“I think we can be happy with today. For the last three races we had been struggling a bit on Friday, finding it hard to classify further than P15 or P16… So it was good to be back in the top ten today in both practice sessions. Of course, we will push to do the same tomorrow, we’re strong here and it motivates the team to move forward – the car works well and we will go through plenty of data tonight in order to be ready for the rest of the weekend – I look forward to it, I enjoy racing at this track!”
Daniil Kvyat
“We tried many things today and I think it was a stimulating Friday. We will now try and learn as much as we can for tomorrow and try to maximize the potential which I feel we’ve got here – I think we can be strong and I’m happy to see that we are looking more competitive than in previous races. Obviously we need to keep working hard, but I’m ready for it!”
Phil Charles, chief race engineer
“Each year I tend to forget just how good the Singapore event is. The night race aspect is cool, the track is technically challenging, requires lots of concentration from the drivers and it is physically difficult, with the temperatures and bumps. It is a great mix. For us as engineers we need to maximise the driver’s time on track and give them a setup, which allows them to position the car well so that they can precisely navigate their way through the 23 corners, which arrive quickly one after the other. Today we set targets to do just that and we continued the re-evaluation of some of our recent aero upgrades. Some interesting data has been collected in this respect. In terms of our performance today, this track is definitely more sympathetic to our package than recent events, where straight line speed has been a high priority. This track also favours more peak downforce and we are relatively stronger in that respect. As a result, our performance here has been a bit better and I think the short run performance is ok. Daniil did not get a great last sector, Grosjean went off in front of him as well on his fastest lap, so he would have been even better. The long runs are perhaps where we need to do a bit more work tonight.”
