Franz Tost acknowledged that his Scuderia Toro Rosso team were never really in with a chance of points in the Italian Grand Prix, particularly when the top five teams were on the top of their game.
Daniil Kvyat finished twelfth on Sunday and Carlos Sainz Jr fourteenth, but the long straights of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza did not play to the strengths of the Renault-powered STR12, and team principal Tost admitted they went into the weekend expecting to be outside of the top ten if none of the frontrunners hit trouble.
“Because of this track’s characteristics, with very long straights, we were aware from the very beginning that this was going to be a difficult race weekend for us,” said Tost.
“We simply didn’t have the pace to score any points here and nothing unexpected happened in front of us – all the cars that finished ahead of us were supposed to finish where they did.”
The attentions of the team now switches to the Singapore Grand Prix, where they hope to be much more competitive and be a genuine points contender.
“Unfortunately, we were never in a position to be within the first ten cars, neither in yesterday’s qualifying or in today’s race,” said Tost. “I hope that we can recover in Singapore, at a track with high downforce which should suit our car much more.”
