Toro Rosso failed to make much of an impact during the British Grand Prix, with Sebastien Buemi finishing out of the points in twelfth place and Jaime Alguersuari retiring.
Buemi started from sixteenth place, so actually made up four positions in the 52-lap race, but the Swiss driver thinks that a points finish was attainable today.
“It did not go well for me today,” he said. “In terms of our strategy, after my tyre change, I came out behind Liuzzi who had not pitted, so I spent around ten laps behind him, using my front tyres a lot and when the Safety Car went in, I had a lot of graining on my front left tyre. By the time that cleared up, I was able to put in some good lap times, but by then it was too late to do much.
“I am disappointed because I think one point might have been possible today, so we did not do a good job.”
Alguersuari’s race finished in a gravel trap, but he felt that his pace had been reasonable up to that point: “Of course I am disappointed not to have finished, but I was quite happy with my race up to that point, because the pace was there, I felt comfortable with the car and was getting faster as the race progressed. The team did a perfect job with my pit stop strategy. As usual, I suffer a bit at tracks I have not driven before, having to learn them from Friday to Saturday, but from Hungary onwards, I will have had that experience from last season, which will make life easier.”
Franz Tost echoed his driver’s disappointment, but confirmed that Alguersuari’s retirement was a mechanical failure and not driver error.
“At the end of the first lap, Sebastien came round in eleventh place, which looked quite encouraging, but then he dropped down the order,” explained the Toro Rosso team principal. “We decided to call him in for his pit stop a bit earlier than planned, as his lap times were not so good. After this, he then found himself stuck behind Liuzzi for several laps. The fact that he set the eighth fastest lap time in the race shows the potential of the car.
“As for Jaime, he drove a good race up until the moment when he had a brake problem with seven laps to go and had to retire. We will now investigate the cause of this failure. It was a shame for him, as, towards the end of the race, he had the pace to close on Hulkenberg.
“In two weeks time we go to Hockenheim, where we must try and do better.”
