Toro Rosso STR14 held 'no nasty surprises' for Albon

©ToroRosso

Toro Rosso rookie Alex Albon says he is happy with the team's new STR14 after discovering in pre-season testing that the car held "no nasty surprises".

Albon enjoyed a productive baptism of fire in Barcelona, logging in the miles and getting acquainted with his new environment and his 2019 F1 contender.

As far as the 22-year-old apprentice is concerned, Toro Rosso has put together an all-round good race car.

"We're just happy with the car, there's no nasty surprises," said the 22-year-old apprentice.

"In high speed, low speed and medium speed, the car's more or less consistent. There's no nasty surprises so the confidence is really good.

"There's not an area specifically we really need to target, but we need to fine tune the car."

Albon's first official outing in the STR14 saw the British-Thai racer spin into the gravel trap on his out lap!

It was but a harmless mishap however and he eventually went on to work diligently, racking up the miles over the course of the two weeks of testing and even outpacing at the end of the day his experienced team mate, F1 returnee Daniil Kvyat.

"It's just been steady," he added. "We hit the ground running pretty fast to be honest, I think we already had a good baseline coming into the first day of testing.

"Since that, we've just been trying things out and seeing what works for us."

Albon was a late addition to the 2019 F1 grid, having initially been scheduled to race in Formula E with Nissan e.dams.

However, his results in last year's FIA Formula 2 championship were picked up by Red Bull's Helmut Marko, and the rest as they say is history.

"I still don't really believe it, it won't hit me until I'm there," he admitted, looking ahead to his F1 race debut at Melbourne.

"It's not the easiest circuit, and it'll be a bit eye-opening, but I'm excited."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter