Formula One news

Frustrated expectations for Tost

Franz Tost believes that a slow start to the season has been the reason that Toro Rosso has failed to live up to expectations so far this year. Not only has the car not been as fast as the team principal has hoped but reliability issues have plagued the team's chances of points.

Tost said: "We are still suffering the effects of our late start, losing nine days of testing. The car was not as competitive as we expected. We struggled to understand the car at the beginning and to find the right set-up."

The team has however benefited from the arrival of engineering whiz Giorgio Ascanelli in April, who shares a fantastic relationship with Toro Rosso part-owner Gerhard Berger, having worked with him at McLaren and Ferrari during the Austrian's driving days.

The technical director brings with him experience from Ferrari, who will carry on supplying the team with engines next year. The team is also hoping that its former Minardi team members, many of whom stayed on with the Faenza-based team when it was purchased by Red Bull in late 2005, can continue to gel under Ascanelli's leadership and form a solid base for success for next season.

Tost commented: "The team is getting better all the time. Since Giorgio Ascanelli joined us we have improved immensely on the technical side, especially in terms of the technical operations point of view."

Tost admits that the route to success is a gradual process and concedes that many of the cars flaws are in the design of the STR2, which can not be ironed out until next season.

He added: "We still struggle with reliability and I hope we can get this under control from Budapest onwards. We know what our problems are and we have to make some design changes, which is why they cannot happen overnight.

"We have some very good ideas and I think that by the end of this season we will have made a step forward and by next year we will be much nearer to our goals in terms of how the team operates."

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