Toro Rosso will hold off its latest update until round six in Monaco as it aims to continue its battle with the midfield teams.
The team’s STR6 has had a positive start to the season, taking four points in the first three races, putting it ahead of Force India and Williams, but just behind Sauber.
These teams, chief engineer Laurent Mekies believes, will be their main competition in 2011, describing the midfield battle as their championship within the championship.
“At the first race, we found we had a reasonable race pace and our direct competition came, as expected from Williams, Force India and Sauber and we found ourselves fighting these guys throughout the opening three races of the championship,” he told the Toro Rosso website.
“Our STR6 appeared to have the potential to fight them, which was good news.
“We are going to have an interesting fight with these three or four teams all season long – if you like, this is our championship battle within the championship.”
In the hope of continuing the fight, the Italian outfit will introduce one of two major updates at the Monaco GP, in just four weeks time.
“We have planned major steps for car development during the year that have been established since before the start of the season,” explained Laurent.
“We will see a significant step introduced in Monaco and another one later in the season. These two steps are planned and will hopefully provide good performance improvements, however, it is also true that with minimal testing allowed, we have been trying different set-ups at the races and these can lead you down different paths in terms of ride height, or the type of springs to use, or in terms of the aero balance on the car and these elements can also impact on the development strategy for the car.”
