Toro Rosso plans to run different specifications of car throughout the rest of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend to understand its aerodynamic upgrades better.
The team was analysing a new aerodynamic packaged during Friday practice in Singapore, with both cars performing strongly throughout the two sessions. While both Sainz and Daniil Kvyat were in the top ten throughout the day, Sainz says the one downside was the running did not show a clear difference between the updated car and the previous specification.
"Probably this is the only bad news," Sainz said. "Both packages are working very similar so they intend to keep both packages different for the whole weekend and see if they can spot something more during the weekend, which is not ideal because it means the package hasn’t brought much or as much as we thought.
"So there’s not been a lot of development this year but thank God not many things have developed a lot because of next year’s regulations."
While there are new aerodynamic regulations being introduced in 2017, Sainz says he is not concerned by the lack of performance from this weekend's upgrade.
"I don’t like being negative or anything like that, but this obviously is the best sign, up until this package everything the team has put on the car has worked, and all the numbers the team has brought to the track have been spot on.
"This is the first one that maybe doesn’t accomplish our expectations, so it’s not ideal but not a disaster because it has worked 90% of the other cases, but it’s not a big concern let’s put it like that."
Silbermann says ... Not so sleepy in Singapore
Romain Grosjean column: Drivers have a certain shelf life
Chris Medland's 2016 Singapore Grand Prix preview
TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Red Bull RB12
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Netflix is keeping the Formula 1 cameras rolling, with the streaming giant confirming that Drive…
Laurent Mekies has given Liam Lawson a ringing endorsement after the Kiwi made the most…
Fred Vasseur has heard the criticism. He has heard Lewis Hamilton’s frustration, Charles Leclerc’s confusion…
Toto Wolff has delivered a remarkably blunt explanation for Mercedes’ recent slide, admitting that the…
Fernando Alonso left Zandvoort with something Aston Martin has been desperately short of in 2026:…
Max Verstappen, Red Bull (DNF) – 3.5/10 The home hero’s Zandvoort send-off turned into an…