James Key admitted that the brake issue that ended Daniil Kvyat’s afternoon session at the Red Bull Ring was not one the Scuderia Toro Rosso team had seen before, and they will need to analyse why his rear brakes caught alight.
The Russian finished thirteenth fastest in the session but was informed to slow the car down and drive carefully back to the pits when the problem with the brakes appeared, and it required fire extinguishers to be applied when he stopped in his box.
“Daniil had a braking issue of some sort at the rear, which has caused the rear brakes to get hot – we are currently investigating exactly what this is, but it’s not something we’ve seen before, so we have to understand exactly what happened there and address it for tomorrow,” said Technical Director Key.
Key also expressed his disappointment that Carlos Sainz Jr’s session was also ended early after he damaged his floor and front end of his chassis when he ran wide at the penultimate corner and caught the aggressive kerbing at the wrong angle when attempting to rejoin the circuit.
“For Carlos, he was unfortunately one of a number of drivers who went beyond the limits of the track today,” said Key.
“Just as he was returning to the track, he caught the floor on quite an aggressive kerb and this unfortunately damaged the floor and the front area around the chassis. This meant it was sadly game over for him.”
Key believes there is still work to be done in order for both drivers to be comfortable and quick this weekend in Austria, but feels there is some pace still untapped due to both drivers failing to get clear laps in on the faster Ultrasoft tyre.
“In terms of performance, there’s definitely some work to do,” said Key. “It’s all very close and we didn’t get a clean run with either driver with the Ultrasoft tyre at the beginning of the session, so we know there’s a little bit more to come from that.
“Nevertheless, there’s still some work to do and we will work on that tonight, targeting a bit more of a consistent day tomorrow.”
