Toro Rosso drivers Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat have stressed that the team can still compete in Formula 1’s midfield in the wake of a difficult string of events.
Toro Rosso scored in six of the opening seven grands prix, peaking with seventh and eighth in Monaco, but was off the pace in both France and Austria.
Its prospects were compromised by back-of-the-grid penalties for Kvyat (France) and Albon (Austria) but it took only 14th and 15th, and 15th and 17th respectively in the two events.
“We had a tough time at the last two rounds and in Austria, we tackled practice in a slightly different way, as we knew I'd be starting from the back of the grid because of the PU change penalties,” said Albon.
“We tried to understand the car a bit better as it had not worked the way we wanted in France.
“In Austria, we tried to unlock it's potential, but we had similar issues to Paul Ricard, even if to a lesser extent.
“Coming to the British GP, without penalties on the plan we will be starting the race from the actual qualifying position and, after having analysed lots of data from the last two races, we hope we will be able to battle in the tight midfield successfully.”
Toro Rosso still holds eighth in the Constructors’ Championship but is only a point ahead of the struggling Haas team.
“It's fair to say we've experienced a couple of difficult race weekends, in France and immediately afterwards in Austria,” said Kvyat.
“We struggled with the general pace of the car on those two very different kinds of tracks.
“They didn't really suit us very well and we are trying to get to the bottom of that to find out why.
“It seems to be the case this year and not just for us, that some tracks suit certain cars better than others.
“Apart from that, some other teams in our part of the grid have made good progress, but we are working hard on fighting back and will take each race as it comes.
“I was in the simulator after Austria to understand what we could have done better in the past races and what we can do to improve for the next few ones before the summer shutdown. Hopefully, we will be stronger.”
