For the first time in 2017, the Scuderia Toro Rosso team failed to score points with at least once car, with Daniil Kvyat’s twelfth place finish the best they achieved during the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
Carlos Sainz Jr endured a tough weekend, with mechanical issues blighting both practice and qualifying, before a clash with Lance Stroll ended his race and earned him a grid penalty for the Russian Grand Prix as well.
“Bahrain turned out to be quite a difficult weekend for us,” revealed Team Principal Franz Tost. “The negatives started already on Friday, with a broken exhaust on Carlos’ car which meant we had to change all the wiring looms and the complete environment of the exhaust system.
“On Saturday, during his very fast qualifying lap, he also had to stop the car on track because of a Power Unit issue. Regarding the race, Carlos’ start was good and he was able to overtake a few cars. Unfortunately, he had a collision with Stroll, which meant that he could not finish the race.
“Regarding Daniil, he lost many positions during the first lap and dropped back. After that, he drove a solid race, taking part in some good fights, but unfortunately he couldn’t finish within the points.”
Tost was naturally downbeat with the outcome in Bahrain, and is looking to put their troubles behind them so to focus on a return to the points in Sochi in two weeks time.
“We now have to prepare everything in the best possible way for the next race in Sochi in order to fight back and score some points,” ended Tost.
