Brendon Hartley reckons Toro Rosso’s inability to fully understand Pirelli’s nuanced tyres is partly to blame for its recent struggles in Formula 1.
Toro Rosso starred in the second round of the season in Bahrain, with Pierre Gasly fourth, but has scored just a point since, achieved by Hartley at a chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
As a result the team has slipped to eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, only a point ahead of Sauber.
Hartley believes the fact Toro Rosso found the ideal window in Bahrain, while rivals struggled with overheating, provides clues as to how its STR13 is operating.
“Definitely [in the] last races as a team we’ve not been fast enough,” he said.
“Clearly we had very strong pace in Bahrain, and since then we haven’t had the pace to score any sort of real points, Baku I took one point, since then we haven’t had the pace.
“Some of it [the deficit] is understood, I think tyres are a big player, I think we clearly got them working very well in Bahrain when others were overheating.
“Since then we’ve probably been on the colder side so I think there’s a trend emerging.
“Here [in Monaco] with the Hypersofts will be interesting for us, on top of that we have an update, I don’t get it until Saturday but Pierre will have an updated floor which is good.
“The team was fast here last year, there’s no reason it can’t be a good weekend, it’s going to be a lot hotter and we have the Hypersofts.
“I think some of the tyre issues we’ve maybe experienced compared to others won’t be as dominant as the last races. I go into the race with confidence and see no reason why we can’t have a strong weekend.”
Hartley added that he is eyeing a “clean weekend” after failing to complete a qualifying lap across the past two Grands Prix.
Hartley was hindered by yellow flags and a mistake in Azerbaijan while last time out in Spain a high-speed crash during final practice left him on the sidelines for qualifying.
“Obviously a clean weekend around here is easier said than done but that’s obviously the focus,” he said.
“I think everyone will be building up to it, but [I have] confidence for the weekend and looking to show everyone what I can do.”
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