By Scuderia Toro Rosso
May 3 2007

Scuderia Toro Rosso will not participate in the extra day that has been added to the current F1 test session at Barcelona, Spain, opting instead to pack up and head back to Faenza. In the past, the British teams would head off for Spanish tracks to test, safe in the knowledge they were leaving the cold and the rain behind to run their cars in the dry. But for whatever reason, Global Warming maybe, it seems that southern Spain is turning into the rain capital of Europe, while Silverstone basks in 23 degrees of sunshine. Rain on the second day means that most teams are extending their session to 3 May, but for technical and logistical reasons, Scuderia Toro Rosso headed back to Italy after the end of the Wednesday session.

Tonio Liuzzi drove all of day one, while on day two, Scott Speed was brought in during the afternoon, before running all of today, to ensure both drivers experienced the car in both wet and dry conditions, which could prove useful for the forthcoming Spanish Grand Prix.

The job sheet for all three days included tyre evaluation of the two compounds that Bridgestone will have on offer for the race weekend, trying new aero components and evaluating various braking systems and materials.

“We will now have to study the data to see if these changes are an improvement and if we should use them for the race,” said Chief Engineer, Laurent Mekies. “The rain hampered our progress, but today, Scott did nearly a hundred laps which allowed us to catch up with our programme. After a rushed start to the season, this session was a good opportunity to develop our excellent relationship with Ferrari, with whom we worked on improving performance and on the car’s control systems.”

Here is a day-by-day rundown of their test session:

Monday, 4/30:
Vitantonio Liuzzi - 55 laps / best time - 1:22.771 - 8th fastest of 13

Tuesday, 5/1 (rain shortened day):
Vitantonio Liuzzi - 38 laps / best time - 1:33.323 - 9th fastest of 12
Scott Speed - 7 laps / best time - 1:39.560 - 11th fastest of 12

Wednesday, 5/2:
Scott Speed - 96 laps / best time - 1:23.713 - 9th fastest of 11