Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz says he is pleased to be closer in terms of top speed to his rivals after a difficult 2016 season in which the team ran year-old Ferrari power units, and expects a further step forward when Renault delivers its next upgrade in Canada.
The Italian team made the switch to Renault this year from Ferrari and Sainz says they're now much closer to the current-spec Ferrari unit and the Mercedes engine, but there is still some ground to be made up.
"For me it feels great because last year was very painful," commented the Spaniard. "The second half of the season we were something like 15, 16 or 17 kph down on the straight compared to our direct competitors.
"To start the first race [in Melbourne] to see 7 to 8 or just 5 to 6 [kph] back was really good news and something I'm grateful to experience, but as you can see we’re still one step behind the best engines in that regard."
Sainz is hopeful that Renault will further reduce that gap when it delivers its next major upgrade in June at the Canadian Grand Prix.
"I have the trust that Renault are working hard on that upgrade package coming to Canada and that can give us the extra 5 kph that can put us back in a normal standard top speed deficit."
Overall Sainz was impressed with Toro Rosso's first race of 2017 in Melbourne, following a difficult pre-season, but is expecting China to present a tougher challenge.
"I think it was a really good weekend after a tough winter, [where we completed] more laps than [only] McLaren. It was an extremely tough winter for us, to turn up to the first race to put both cars in the points and Q3 was a success, it shows the car has a lot of potential and that we can only get better from here.
"Shanghai will be a bit tougher as it has a bit of a longer straight than Melbourne but we can be happy with the first race and start from there."
