Toro Rosso chose Jaime Alguersuari to do the team’s first test of the new Pirelli tyres in Abu Dhabi on Friday, but the Spanish driver came away from the Yas Marina circuit with no definitive verdict on their performance.
Each team was supplied with four sets of tyres – two prime (the medium compound) and two option (soft) and Alguersuari’s job was to help the team evaluate how the STR5 behaved on this rubber, and work on a set-up to get optimum performance from them.
“It was a useful experience for me to run on these new tyres,” said Alguersuari. “We did a good mileage, some runs on heavy fuel and some with less and it was interesting to see how the tyres behaved. It is too early to say more than that, because of course there will be more development to come from Pirelli before the next season starts.”
Like Alguersuari, Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies gave no indication as to how pleased he was with the tyre that Pirelli have produced, perhaps saving his analysis for tomorrow, when Alguersuari’s teammate takes to the wheel. “From the car side, we had a trouble free day,” said Mekies. “Track conditions are now very different to those over the race weekend, partly because of the two days of running during the young driver test. The day went well and we are now preparing for the second day of running with Pirelli, when Sebastien Buemi will take over at the wheel.”