Despite the third day of testing was been one of the most odd, unproductive and cold sessions that have been held in years, some drivers have been brave enough to go on track.
One of them, Brendon Hartley, from Toro Rosso Honda, completed only one installation lap during the entire day. After the testing, he shared with the media his thoughts and feeling about the non-existant testing day and his overall feeling through the week.
“We’re optimistic at the team,” He said about the changes on the team for this season, specially the Honda engine. “It’s good to have Honda and reliability has been good so far. Having so good days in terms of reliability has been surprising. I think it shows how hard the team has worked since the last few months. At the moment, Toro Rosso integration with Honda has been perfect and it’s being a great beginning.”
“It’s more difficult to leave the car, especially with my long legs. The car doesn’t look so good seen from the outside, but from the inside I don’t need to look at it and actually I can’t see it. Getting into the car is difficult, but it’s good for safety.”
“With the new surface and such cold conditions we could barely get the tyres to temperature today.” He said about the difficult conditions and the few mileage everyone has done. “We did get to test a couple of items on the car in preparation for Melbourne, so it’s good to be able to sign off a few parts. There were other things we could go through: we simulated a race start, checked some procedures, practiced changes on the steering wheel and went through some useful data. It was a bit annoying for me to not get any dry running, but I’m sure in the next test we’ll make up for that. So far, the driveability of the car has been great and the reliability has been faultless, so it’s been a positive start to the campaign.”
