Toro Rosso: No qualms about new car debut
| By Jonathan Noble |
Tuesday, May 20th 2008, 08:48 GMT |
 Scuderia Toro Rosso have no qualms about introducing their new car in Monaco this weekend - even though the dangers of doing so are likely to be amplified by forecast poor weather.
The team have given the green light to the introduction of the STR3 following a successful test at Paul Ricard in France last week.
And although there is a risk that accident damage at the event could set them back in terms of spare parts, the team's technical director Giorgio Ascanelli is sure thee are right in not delaying the debut of their new car.
"I am both brave and mad as everyone knows," said Ascanelli. "Introducing a new car in Monaco, especially when the weather forecast is for rain is putting at risk our spares availability. Nevertheless, there are reasons that lead us to bring two new cars here.
"Firstly, delaying its debut by one more race would mean less running and less experience with the car and the crucial learning curve would be further delayed which is not a good thing.
"Secondly, Monte Carlo would have been a step too far for the old car and the specific demands of this circuit mean we would have been badly prepared to tackle it with the STR2B, which was last year's car with different gearbox, bodywork and wings and we had not planned to race it here.
"Monaco preparation would have been poor with the old car as it was never planned to run it here."
Ascanelli believes the new car should deliver the team up to half a second per lap around Monaco - which should be enough, in theory, to get the team through to Q2.
"I don't like to be dragged into talking numbers, but the car will be similar to the Red Bull car at the start of the season so hopefully somewhere between three tenths and half a second quicker than our old car around Monaco," he said.
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