Scuderia Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost knew that this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix would be difficult for the team running the 2015 Ferrari power unit, and is expecting more troubles next weekend in Italy.
The team were well down on power compared to many of their rivals, but Tost praised both drivers for the jobs they did, even if Carlos Sainz Jr’s race was over on the second lap due to a puncture.
Sainz had jumped into seventh on the opening lap after avoiding the first corner melee, while team-mate Daniil Kvyat run as high as eighth before the deficit in power became too much and he dropped back to fourteenth at the chequered flag.
“Even before arriving here we knew that Spa – and also Monza – would be a difficult race for us, because we have the disadvantage of running last year’s engine,” said Tost. “This was actually the case in the end and it also hurt our qualifying pace yesterday, as we ended up P15 and P19.
Today Carlos did a fantastic start and gained seven positions during the first lap, racing in P7. Unfortunately, he had a tyre failure. I assume that the tyre was destroyed by some debris from the collision in the first corner and therefore Carlos had to retire.
“Daniil performed a very good race. Strategy wise, the team also did everything correctly, but in the end our lap times were simply too slow to score some points.
“We will now analyse everything and hopefully we will come back stronger, especially in Singapore. Before that, let’s focus on another tough race for us, the team’s home Grand Prix in Monza next week.”