Friday: Toro Rosso drivers held back but confident

Daniel Ricciardo – 18th and 16th:

« Our first day in Abu Dhabi wasn’t the best, as we struggled to find a good balance on the car. Putting lap times aside, it was difficult to understand what was wrong with the car. This makes life complicated because it undermines your confidence. However, we made progress between this morning and this afternoon, but there is still more to come. I think we understand what we need, so with effective work tonight with the engineers, we should be able to do better tomorrow. The softs seem to behave much better here than in India, which we expected, even though I didn’t do many laps on full fuel. I’ve always loved driving here because it goes from dusk to darkness so quickly, which involves changing helmets during the session, which is fun. »

Jean-Eric Vergne – 16th and 17th:

« If we disregard the lap times, I think it has been a productive day. Our overall performance is good, and I feel like the car is working well. It’s true that we still need to find more lap time for tomorrow, but I am quite confident. We need to work well tonight to fix the small details that were not perfect today, and I think we can be competitive. As for the tires, I did a long stint on softs, and they work much better and last longer with better degradation than in India a few days ago. So, everyone should be able to make better use of them during the race on Sunday. It’s a really nice track to drive on, and the location and session timings are truly unique. »