Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost believes his team has a fast and competitive car on its hands but it needs to overcome an outstanding reliability issue before the first race in Australia.
The Faenza-based squad was hardly a marathon runner in Barcelona during pre-season testing, ending its stay in Catalonia with the lowest number of laps of all teams bar McLaren obviously.
Fortunately, Carlos Sainz was able to put in a long haul work session on Friday, while Tost is confident all problems will be resolved in the next two weeks.
"After completing the two pre-season tests here in Barcelona I can affirm that the STR12 is a fast and competitive car," said Todt.
"One weak point is the reliability, as we’ve had too many issues over these two weeks.
"On the positive side, I can say that this situation has improved compared to last week’s T01, but there has still been a few problems that have taken track time away from us this week."
Identifying the niggling issues however is a necessary first step towards eradicating the weakness.
"The good news is that we know what the issues are – nothing major – so I’m confident we can solve them all before getting to Australia thanks to all the valuable data we’ve collected here.
"Regarding our drivers, I have to say that both Carlos and Daniil have done a fantastic job every time they’ve jumped in the car and provided very useful feedback.
"Our engineers will now analyse all the data gathered to optimise the set-up for Melbourne.
"I’m really looking forward to the season ahead, I think we’re going to have a very interesting fight with the midfield teams and I just can’t wait to get started!"
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