Formula One: Italian Grand Prix – 1 race, 24 different reactions (Part 4)
The feature continues with words from the Toro Rosso and Force India camp. Both teams were evidently knocking on the door of those occupying the first 10 places; unfortunately none of the 4 cars were able to achieve the feat of adding to their respective
team’s points vault.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi rated the weekend at Monza as a positive performance but felt a bit frustrated not to reap any rewards, as he was unable to make the cut for the top 10 – He came 11th after qualifying 13th, an overall improvement nonetheless.
The 21-year-old reflected on losing some time in the pits, he ruled that down to pitting before Rubens Barrichello, as he started his out lap behind the Brazilian. The Swiss partly blamed the slow-moving Lotus and Virgin cars that he caught before the pit-stop
for losing precious seconds – A delay that made all the difference in terms of track position. Buemi stated that he was ‘faster’ than Barrichello after switching to new hard tyres but found it increasingly difficult to overtake, based on the nature of the
track in his eyes. All in all, the Toro Rosso driver was happy with the performance of the car over the stint of the entire weekend in Italy – A marked improvement as compared to the past couple of races. The F-duct has indeed been a revelation this year,
and has bridged the vast gap between the elites of Formula One to the tail-end of the constructor’s table to a certain extent at least. Hopefully, with further developments and tuning the F-duct, Buemi believes that it could be yet another lethal inventory
for the race in Singapore in two weeks time. The Toro Rosso racer went further and concluded that if the team continued its climb on the performance curve, there was always hope to challenge the might of the Williams and Mercedes in mid-table!
Jaime Alguersuari on the other hand took comfort in the fact that he ran a clean race at the end of the 53 laps. The Toro Rosso driver was pleased with his performance, as he was able to consistently post decent lap times and retain good pace throughout.
The Spaniard admitted that it was beyond his comprehension the criteria behind his drive through penalty – a feat he has been subjected to twice in the space of two races. The Toro Rosso driver argued that despite cutting the chicane, he did not gain an advantage;
neither did he catch the drivers ahead of him, nor did he pull away from the cars behind. Despite the fact that the penalty itself made little difference to his race, it was still ‘annoying’ nonetheless.
Force India
Tonio Liuzzi commended the race track and environment at Monza. However, it was always an uphill battle breaking into the top 10 after starting 19th on the grid. He was able to bring the car home at a hard fought 12th in the end. The
absence of a safety car for the entire length of 53 laps made it further difficult to gain any advantage on the cars ahead, the driver commented. Liuzzi felt the team had done a superb job getting the car in good enough shape to challenge for the point-scoring
positions but concluded that Formula 1 is a competitive sport and presented a number of deserving drivers worthy of the that throne. That made overtaking difficult, and despite pushing hard, it was difficult to pass Buemi and Barrichello who matched his pace.
Rounding off, the Italian felt that the team had a good race, and could have done with a point or two to match.
Adrian Sutil, on the other hand, was expected to be a touch more prominent after his heroics at Spa. After being pushed wide into the gravel as early as turn 1, it was always going to be difficult recovering. However, the Force India driver’s work was undone
after posting in consistently decent laps on the harder compound gamble, when he had come into the pits for a nosecone change. Despite a point-less race, Sutil took pride in his season so far and looked to challenge with new vigour and increased commitment
for the remaining 5 races for 2010.
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