F1 Test | Toro Rosso, Kvyat: “It's important to continue working hard”

Toro Rosso's third day of testing in Barcelona ended with the best time, thanks to the time set by Daniil Kvyat towards the end of the session. The Russian in fact concluded the day with a time of 1:17.704 on C5 tyre, the softest available in the Pirelli range.

The day was undoubtedly positive for the Faenza team, not only from the chronometric point of view, which is certainly relative considering the little value of the times in this phase of the tests, but above all from the point of view of reliability, thanks to the 137 laps completed without problems whatsoever, completing the planned program: “We definitely made up for the time we lost on the first day. For us it was important to be able to do as many laps as possible and complete the program” – said Daniil Kvyat at the end of the day -. “We managed to do this while also squeezing in a few extra kilometres, making the day very productive. The guys in the pits should be satisfied with the work they have done, we must continue to maintain this level to do as many kilometers and gain confidence together. I'm comfortable with the car and every time I go out on track I have a better feeling. We always want to do more: if today we had had the chance to do 200 laps, I would have done it... even if my neck probably wouldn't have liked it! Now it's important to continue working hard, without looking at the timesheets, even if it's quite pleasant to have finished in front of everyone. We need to focus on the activities we are doing with the car and make sure we are going in the right direction. We are at the beginning, but a good start is always welcome" added the Russian.

Jody Egginton, Deputy Technical Director of the Italian team, was also satisfied: “This was Daniil's second time behind the wheel, here in Barcelona, ​​and as expected he picked up the program where he left off on the first day. Together with his engineers, he continued to work on the set-up and understanding of the car. The day started with a series of tests that provided a lot of data for our aerodynamicists to examine. Testing continued until lunchtime and, as the track and ambient temperatures increased, we collected a lot of useful data and made progress with the overall set-up of the car. The afternoon program initially focused on evaluating the C2 and C3 compounds on long runs: this gave us the opportunity to get a good read on the tyres. Clearly, at this time of year, Barcelona is not very representative of the normal driving conditions we will encounter during the season and, therefore, the data requires very careful analysis and processing."

“In the final runs of the day we concentrated on shorter distances to collect further useful data on the tyres. As for the power unit, the test program continued without any problems and the main focus was on accumulating kilometres. Overall, we are making good progress with the STR14, with minor and limited reliability issues, so we are on the right track with our testing program. In summary, there is still a lot to do, but today was a satisfying day of work" concluded Egginton.