Toro Rosso chief engineer Laurent Mekies: STR6 in good shape to bag points – Formula 1 news
Toro Rosso chief engineer Laurent Mekies has said that their 2011 car, STR6 is in good shape to challenge for points by finishing in top ten in the upcoming races of the Formula 1 season.
Laurent added that they are facing tough competition by Williams, Force India and Sauber in the ongoing season.
He said, “From a Toro Rosso point of view, we discovered more or less what we had expected after the winter testing, when the car proved to be well born.”
He further added, “At the first race, we found we had a reasonable race pace and our direct competition came, as expected from Williams, Force India and Sauber. We found ourselves fighting these guys throughout the opening three races of the championship,
[and] our STR6 appeared to have the potential to fight them, which was good news.”
Laurent commented that the performance of their car was good in the qualifying sessions of the three races so far in the 2011 Formula 1 season. However, he added that they were unable to put up the same good show on the race days.
After having a great pre-season testing session in Spain, Toro Rosso were expected to be one of the front running teams in the 2011 season. They had a highly innovative double floor solution for the aerodynamics which was one of the four innovations for
the new season. The other three innovations for the 2011 season are the exhaust systems of Red Bull Racing and Renault and the rear wing assembly of Williams.
As the 2011 season started in Australia, Toro Rosso lived up to the expectations when Sebastian Buemi was able to snatch four points after finishing 8th. From there onwards, Toro Rosso have not been able to challenge for the top ten positions
in the second and third races of the season.
In Malaysia, both drivers did finish the race but could not gather any points while in China, Jamie Alguersuari’s rear wheel came off which led to his disqualification from the race.
Laurent added that the team started the development work soon before the 2011 season started and that it will continue in the whole season.
The fourth race of the season, the Turkish Grand Prix is scheduled to take place this weekend in Istanbul.
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