Bourdais gives latest STR3 chassis its shakedown

Starting one day later than the other teams here in Barcelona, Scuderia Toro Rosso is nevertheless attempting to squeeze three days work into two. French Seb was the first man to get his hands on our latest chassis, STR3-04, which was duly given its shakedown.

The car is also fitted with a new aerodynamic package, being evaluated prior to planned use in the French Grand Prix next weekend. Apart from this, Bourdais also tried some new front suspension options. The entire test was carried out on Bridgestone's "hard" Barcelona tyre. "We found the new package has a significant effect on the handling of the car," said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. "We are still working to understand and improve it and this work will continue when Vettel takes over tomorrow." Bourdais also put in some long runs with reliability in mind and the day was trouble-free.