Phil Charles: “Dry race expected”

Published on 09 October 2015 by Bas Winckels

Phil Charles, chief race engineer at Scuderia Toro Rosso, looks back on unusual Friday practice sessions before the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi: “It’s obviously a bit of a shame that because of this morning’s diesel spill on track and this afternoon’s rain we’ve not got as many laps in as we would’ve ideally wanted, but nonetheless our two young drivers settled in well to another track that is new to them. They both had one decent 12-lap run in the dry in the morning and were quite happy with the car. It was a bit tricky to get a measure of the perfect dry grip level because of the difficult track conditions at the time, so it leaves quite a few question marks for a dry Saturday and Sunday.”

“On the engineering side, we had some new parts on both cars – some are more under the skin than obvious aero parts – but they all seem to work well today, which is a real positive”, Charles continues. “In this afternoon’s FP2 we limited ourselves to one run on a set of extreme tyres in case it rains on Sunday and we need that set of tyres. Current forecasts predict a dry race day but there is some more rain lurking on Monday. In the wet conditions both drivers did fine and seem quite comfortable in the car.”

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