Carlos Sainz admits Toro Rosso is still looking to fully understand the rear rim problems that have been hampering his and team-mate Daniil Kvyat’s progress at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
The Red Bull junior outfit has been on the back foot from the opening day, after Kvyat suffered a series of failures that confined him and Sainz to the garage while the team investigated the issue.
Although both drivers were able to run in Saturday's FP3 and qualifying, their track time remained limited with the pair set to line up 17th and 21st on Sunday’s grid at Yas Marina Circuit.
“We have seen [the issue] before but the problem is that we don’t know really the cause of the puncture,” the Spaniard had told TV reporters after qualifying. “It’s very difficult to find a solution if you don’t know the clear cause.”
Asked whether that means he was going out on track not knowing if his tyre would last, the 22-year-old added:
“We can see some contact with the rim and the tyres but at least we know they are getting better and better every time we go out and every time we do changes on the car to make them better.
“There has been a massive improvement since Friday obviously because we are not having punctures but we also have to condition the car’s setup and aerodynamics; it's not ideal.”
Toro Rosso entered the season-closing grand prix with a shot at pipping McLaren-Honda to sixth in the Constructors’ championship, though the team’s performance has dropped off over the second half of the year.
Sainz, who has delivered a strong campaign and scored 46 of Toro Rosso’s 63 points so far, says he would have wanted to sign off the season in a different way.
“It’s been a very bad weekend up until now. When you have such a good season and the last weekend goes like it’s been going up until now, it’s painful.
“We wanted to finish the season with at least a clean weekend and enjoying ourselves but at the moment it’s very difficult with all the problems and not doing any laps.”
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