Not much changes for Brendon Hartley as he heads into the Russian Grand Prix this weekend. His Scuderia Toro Rosso car is obviously lacking in the power to be competitive in the mid-field and has not had any chassis upgrades since the Austrian Grand Prix.
“I’ve only ever been to Russia for a marketing event and that involved being there for less than 24 hours, so the weekend will be an interesting experience for me,” commented Hartley. “Therefore, this will be another new track for me and last week I drove it in the simulator. It’s fair to say, our Singapore performance was not what we wanted so we will be working hard back in the factory to try and find ways of moving forward. It’s a case of hitting the re-set button, while building on the positive aspects with the aim of looking for points in Sochi.”
His last race at Singapore was solid, finishing 17th, with any chance of gaining a top ten place and scoring points resting on tyre strategy and luck. It will be a similar strategy in Russia as the team doesn’t expect to introduce any aero updates until next month’s United States Grand Prix, with the team meanwhile preparing a new front wing and floor. This should coincide with a performance boost from engine supplier Honda which is preparing for its home grand prix in Japan next weekend.
Team mate Pierre Gasly has raced in Russia back in 2015.
“I raced in Sochi in GP2 twice, coming second in the feature race in 2015, but it was a while ago, so it’s three years since I last drove there,” commented Gasly. “I also raced at the Moscow Raceway circuit in Renault 2 litre and 3.5. That gave me the chance to be a bit of a tourist, visiting Red Square and some of the other sites and it’s pretty impressive.
“That’s one of the nice side effects of doing this job, that you get to see parts of the world you might not otherwise. Sochi is a relatively new venue and an unusual place, as it was home to the winter Olympics. The atmosphere around the outside of the circuit is strange, as there’s nothing much around it except the former Olympic village. Many of the corners are quite similar in nature, but the final part of the lap especially is pretty technical.
“Will the Sochi circuit suit us? That’s hard to tell as recent races have not always gone as we expected. It would be satisfying to get a good result here, not just in itself, but to give us a boost before going to Suzuka the following week for Honda’s home race.”
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