By Andrew Cutler
February 23 2007

Vitantonio Liuzzi has only logged a handful of laps in the brand new Ferrari-powered STR2 so far, but he is allready saying that it has potential to be a markedly superior car to last year's V10 Cosworth STR1. As you may recall, that car was essentially just an updated 2004 Jaguar. "Quite a few times it is more responsive, you feel there's space to challenge the quick bends and some turn entries under braking in a way you couldn't do previously", he told Autosprint magazine. "You can feel this when the car responds, even though you might lose it in the middle of the turn because half the aerodynamics are still missing."

There is still work to be done to get the car up to racing trim. Work continues, not only on the chassis but on other items as well. "The tyres? It's still too early to say whether they behave better with this car. At the moment we still have many new things to bring in. The gearbox at the moment seems like that of a Smart: it takes a lifetime to change gears, but that's because we need to get the electronics working fully."

Liuzzi also noted that the team has yet to put the Ferrari powerplant through a full test but, nonethless, he likes how it has performed so far. "We aren't running full revs yet, but there is good feedback from the engine and the vibrations are limited. It's definitely a good engine."

While drawing comparisons between the STR2 and the STR1, it was clear that Tonio was glad to be rid of last year's car. "The STR1 would just go its own way. You were like a passenger inside the cockpit. During the year we tried to change it completely, but nothing would happen."

Given the late completion date for the STR2 and the new regulation prohibiting the use of a third car for Friday sessions during GP weekends, Liuzzi went on record as being opposed to Scuderia Toro Rosso hiring a test driver at all. "In my opinion it's better like that: we need to push ourselves; we've already lost three winter test sessions, a full month compared to the others. A disaster."