Toro Rosso technical director Giorgio Ascanelli says the Faenza based outfit will soon switch its attention to the 2012 car and updates for the current STR6 will stop.
Whilst the majority of the grid switch attention to next season during the current, they generally do it later in the year. Though the dominant performance from Sebastian Vettel may promot others to follow Toro Rosso and write-off 2011 much sooner than usual.
Ascanelli revealed that the team are ‘punching above their weight’ at the moment having identified eighth position as their 2011 target. They currently sit seventh ahead of Force India.
“I believe that, in terms of all aspects of what makes up a Formula 1 team, we are at a level that you would expect from the ninth team” said Ascanelli. “However, our avowed target for 2011 is to finish eighth and currently, we are seventh in the Constructors’ classification.
“So we have to be happy with that, even if it is going to be difficult to maintain it for the rest of the season. The fact we are seventh does not mean we are performing better than our planned ‘road map’ because although we have got plenty of things right, our position also owes something to other teams sometimes getting it wrong.”
The car will see some upgrades for the next round in Britain as well as their home race which requires a special low-downforce package, but after that, the focus will be on 2012.
“We are approaching that time of year when we must start looking to the new car for 2012,” he continued. “However, there are further developments in the pipeline for STR6: there will be some very small things at Silverstone and some of the following races. Apart from that, the Italian Grand Prix will see changes to the car simply because Monza is such a unique circuit that we need to dedicate some attention to it.
“After that, our focus really has to shift to STR7 or we will not have a car for next year.
“Currently, we are slightly ahead of our target in terms of our position in the classification. Whether we stay there depends on how well we work and it also depends a bit on luck and how our closest rivals perform and how much of their resources they can continue to devote to their 2011 cars.”
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