Phil Charles: “It’s a pity for Max”

Published on 21 August 2015 by Johan Peeters

Phil Charles, chief race engineer of Scuderia Toro Rosso, says after the Friday at Spa Francorchamps: “It was a very interesting day for us and everything looked okay. We arrived here knowing that this track doesn’t suit our car that well, but after a good FP1, our FP2 was slightly underwhelming, so we’ve got a little bit of homework to do tonight. We also need to understand the use of the Option tyre in the race, because we didn’t get a perfect run due to the stop-start red-flag nature of the session, which affected the rest of the teams in the same way as us.”

“This has made things interesting and looking forward to Sunday there are still quite a few unanswered questions, so we are all going into the race a little more blind than normal, but ultimately I think we will be okay. After going through the data tonight, we will hopefully be able to find a little bit of short-run performance. As for the race, we will need to understand the tyres well and work on a good strategy, especially for Max now, as he will have to pick-up a grid penalty for changing his engine. It’s a pity, being this his home Grand Prix, but this is racing and we’re looking forward to the challenge!”