Toro Rosso continued their evaluation of the Pirelli tyres today in Abu Dhabi with Sebastien Buemi taking over testing duties of teammate Jaime Alguersuari.
It was the first time that the Swiss driver had experienced the tyres from the new supplier but he feels that the last two days could not have gone much better for the team.
“I am pleased with my first test day on the Pirelli tyres,” he said. “We got through a lot of work, although it is difficult to draw any conclusions regarding actual performance, even if the feeling from the tyres is pretty good at this early stage. Now, our engineers will have a lot of work back at the factory to ensure the new car suits the characteristics of the tyres. Overall, I do not think we could have done a better job at this test, so it is nice to see the 2010 season end on a positive note.”
Chief Engineer Laurent Mekies notes that, although today’s test concluded the on-track action for 2010, there is not long to go until pre-season testing begins. He also feels that the experience gleaned from today’s running should prove useful as the team prepares from 2011.
“This has been a productive day,” he commented. “We got through a lot of laps, with a mix of short and long runs and it was especially useful that Sebastien was able to do a very long run, equivalent to a race distance on the soft Pirelli tyre, so there is a lot of data from which we can learn for next season. Apart from the work on the tyre front, we also tried a couple of mechanical components aimed at next year's car and we ran trouble free throughout the day.
“That marks the end of testing for 2010, and the team worked well to complete these four additional track days in Abu Dhabi on the back of a very busy end to the season. However, it will not be long until we start all over again at Valencia in early February.”