Post Spa reactions: Franz Tost and Cedrik Staudohar

Published on 23 August 2015 by Stefan Meens

After an enthralling Belgian Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen crossed the line in P8 and Carlos Sainz did not finished, both Scuderia Toro Rosso and Renault had mixed feeling regarding the race at Spa. Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost said: "Max, who was starting at the back of the grid due to the 10-place grid penalty, drove a fantastic race. To finish in P8 and to fight with a Ferrari for P7 shows how competitive the car was and how good Max was driving. Without the problem on Carlos’ car, I think we would’ve been in a position to score more points than what we’ve actually done today.”

Regarding Sainz' race he said: "We didn’t have a good start to the race because an electrical problem related to the engine on Carlos’ car meant we had to bring the car into the garage before the race had even started. We fixed the issue with the cable and he was able to re-join the race, but he was already a couple of laps behind. We decided to continue the race because in Spa you never know what can happen, and maybe a Safety Car or some rain could’ve helped us, but unfortunately this never happened, so with 11 laps to go we called him in to save some engine mileage. I’d like to apologise to Carlos for this, as it’s now the fourth race in a row where he can’t finish a race because of technical problems."

Cedrik Staudohar (Renault Sport F1 track support leader commented): "It was in part a difficult race. We suffered a loss of power on the formation lap with Carlos due to a loose connector in the engine. Once it was fixed in the garage he could get going again, but as he was two laps down, the race was effectively over. We have to apologise to the team and ensure that this won't happen again. Max had a good recovery from his grid penalty with some strong moves on track to score points. On such a long circuit, it’s a great achievement.”