Jean-Eric Vergne admitted Toro Rosso face “major problems” in getting their STR9 ready for the first race of the season with just one test remaining.
Vergne covered just 19 laps on the eighth day of testing today in Bahrain. The team resorted to pit stop practice due to the lack of track running it was able to complete.
“There’s no point in making negative comments, because everyone knows we are facing major problems and we are not alone in that,” said Vergne.
“We knew when we came to Bahrain that there had not been enough time since the previous test to have solved all our issues.”
“It’s frustrating,” Vergne added, “but we need to keep calm and not get stressed as there are still a few weeks before Melbourne”.
“We will try again here in Bahrain starting on Thursday. Clearly, in Melbourne, just finishing the race will mean you have a good chance of scoring points.”
Toro Rosso’s engine supplier Renault has struggled with several problems affecting its Energy F1 engine. Fellow Renault users Red Bull, Lotus and Caterham have also suffered serious disruption to their pre-season test programmes.
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Image © Red Bull/Getty
rambler
22nd February 2014, 15:53
It’s fairly safe to say Renault has made a cockup. It’s getting quite embarrasing really.
Pjams (@jack-burton)
22nd February 2014, 16:10
embarrassing doesn’t begin until Australia, but yeah, it will get worse before it gets better.
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
24th February 2014, 4:22
Renault are the only engine supplier who are having problems like I was expecting. Mercedes and Ferrari are having it easy right now.. But that doesn’t mean anything.. Racing conditions could be very different to what has been run so far.
mantresx (@mantresx)
22nd February 2014, 16:05
In this article you could replace the words Toro Rosso for Red Bull and Vergne for Vettel, and it would still make complete sense.
joe jopling (@jop452)
22nd February 2014, 16:37
Think its quite possible that although all cars will be at Melbourne, at least 4 may withdraw from the race, on ” safety ” issues…or to avoid being embarassed….
Hacked By @bboscat (@mat-k)
22nd February 2014, 20:22
it would be shame for teams to fully withdraw from the whole event on those terms, problem is if they don’t run there still not learning.
so there going to have to suck it up and see,
we dont see the back feild complaining (in previous years) they just get on with with it season after season maybe not ever scoring one single point
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
23rd February 2014, 8:12
we could have a battle for the 107% to qualify for the race. And then a “last man standing race” depending on which Renault power car hold the longest on track.
Anyway, I hope it doesn’t happen like that. Would be beter if Renault somehow managed to get something out of the box for the next test (and Renault teams as well, I believe it’s not just renault here … Lotus being last out covered decent laps on Bahrain final day)
WilliamB (@william-brierty)
22nd February 2014, 17:03
…says the team with more mileage than Red Bull.
m30
22nd February 2014, 17:39
Oh well, seems we are gonna have an 8 car championship.
Girts (@girts)
22nd February 2014, 18:38
I feel sorry for Daniil Kvyat. As a 19-year old rookie he needs to rack up as many laps as possible to be competitive against the more experienced competitors. His mission is already difficult enough without all the trouble that STR are currently facing. I think he has a lot of talent and it would be sad to see it getting wasted just because of “wrong place, wrong time”.
PieLighter (@pielighter)
22nd February 2014, 19:26
@girts In normal circumstances the Young Driver program would take such things into account, of course. However, this is Helmut Marko we’re talking about.
Timothy Katz (@timothykatz)
22nd February 2014, 20:35
Yes, it would be ironic if a third driver such as Nasr was able to complete more laps just on Friday than a contracted driver like Kvyat was able to complete all weekend.
electrolite (@electrolite)
22nd February 2014, 22:50
@girts especially seeing as Toro Rosso switched from Ferrari engines!
karter22 (@karter22)
23rd February 2014, 9:42
I guess Crashtor Maldonado is hitting his head against a wall seeing Williams´ progress with MERC power!! LMAO!!