After a launch and a shakedown in Barcelona, the past three days in Bahrain were effectively the first ‘proper’ test session for Scuderia Toro Rosso with the new STR2 car. Therefore, after Spain, it was a case of full speed ahead to get to the Sakhir circuit in time.

“We are still very much in the early stages of development, learning about the car and how to work with it,” said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. “This meant that for the first two days, we did not cover as much mileage as we would have liked, but this is inevitable when learning about a new car. But by the third day, we managed to increase our number of laps and pick up some speed, as we worked on aero and mechanical set up, as well as evaluating the two types of tyre Bridgestone will make available to us for the race here in April.”

Scuderia Toro Rosso and the eight other teams here now have two days to get back up to speed in readiness for the final three days of the Sakhir test that get underway on Tuesday 23 February and as such the team mechanics will be working nonstop in the garage to ensure everything is ready.