Carlos Sainz Jr feels that his Scuderia Toro Rosso and engine suppliers Renault have made great progress this week as the Spaniard aims to make up for lost time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Spaniard was able to complete 92 laps and finished with a best time of 1:21.872, but feels it is too early to make any conclusions to where the team are in relation to everyone else.
“I think today was a much better day compared to last week and we’ve definitely made a step forward in terms of reliability,” said Sainz. “Our test programme this week is a very tight one as we still have a lot of catch-up to do, so it’s therefore still too early to make any conclusions.
“Even though we lost a bit of valuable track time, I’m happy with the fact that I was able to do so many laps, because that’s what testing is all about!”
The team still had a few niggling issues on day two, and cost them some more valuable track time, and Jody Egginton, Head of Vehicle Performance, says the issues were minor but at the same time annoying.
“A day of mixed fortunes really, with some very good steps forward made with the set-up but, at the same time, we have been dealing with some small but frustrating background issues which have broken up our running and cost some track time,” said Egginton.
“Evaluating what we have learnt today, we can say that feedback from the development items tested has been interesting. It’s provided some valid directions for the short-term but also a useful basis for further medium-term.
“This is good to see, as it allows a constant stream of development items from early on in the season onwards.”
