Carlos Sainz says the 2015 Ferrari power unit gives Toro Rosso "a bit more power everywhere" compared to last year's Renault.
Toro Rosso switched from Renault to Ferrari power units over the winter, securing a deal to run year-old engines as Maranello did not want to provide a current specification power unit to a Red Bull-owned team. While Sainz was recently wary of judging the new STR11 too soon, he says there is a clear improvement from the power unit.
“It’s a step forward for sure, no doubt," Sainz said. "As expected we have a bit more power everywhere, we have more top speed, we have easy handling of the battery and we have the same drivability - maybe a bit better - but that was not the biggest change, the biggest change is the power that is exactly what we needed and for the moment reliability also looks promising.”
With the new Toro Rosso coming together late as a result of the power unit change, Sainz is confident there is plenty more performance to be found during the second test.
"We didn’t really look at performance, we don’t look at anything other than reliability," Sainz said. "That was our weakest point last year and at the moment I’m confident that the car is lapping and lapping and lapping and not giving big issues.
"We are having small issues - very, very small issues that have to be addressed - but apart from that there is progress and confidence that we could have better reliability this year.”
Force India winter diary part seven - Shooting the drivers
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