"The new baby is out"
Today, the Jerez de la Frontera circuit was the venue for a new team to run its new car for the first time. Scuderia Toro Rosso's challenger for the 2006 Formula One season, the STR-01 has finally broken cover at Spain.
Circuit : Jerez de la Frontera - 4.428 km
Car : STR-01
Driver: Tonio Liuzzi
Laps: 79
Best time: 1:19.394
The task of shaking down the new beast fell to Tonio Liuzzi. "Finally, the new baby is out. Now I feel that we are really on course for the 2006 season.
Everything went well and the car ran pretty reliably. Of course, with a new car there is still quite a lot to do with set-up and the engine definitely felt different. It makes a strange noise, has less power and the power band is in a different place to what I had been used to."
The new car broke down on the circuit just once. The fault was traced to an electrical problem, which was soon fixed once the car was back in the pits. Scott Speed takes over at the wheel tomorrow.
