By Andrew Cutler
September 8 2012

Scuderia Toro Rosso came into the Friday Practice sessions at Monza looking to try out a special set of low downforce wings in an effort to wring every last bit of speed out of the STR7. Unfortunately, they did not improve the cars' performance in comparision to the rest of the paddock.

Daniel Ricciardo would log 25 laps in FP1, and 33 in FP2. His best would be a 1:27.373 in the morning and a 1:26.724 in the afternoon. These were only good enough for 17th and 15th fastest overall, respectively.

Jean-Eric Vergne would log 24 laps in the morning, then 36 in the afternoon> His best would be a 1:27.789 and a 1:26.864. His times were 18th and 19th fastest, respectively.

Daniel Ricciardo:

"You come to Monza with a special low downforce package and the car always feels a bit different, moving around more and you are reaching very high speeds, so in terms of balance, it's hard to be happy here compared to circuits where you run much higher downforce. Therefore you need to change your approach a bit. However, we are still looking for some more speed and even if we have to accept it might not be perfect, I do believe there is room for improvement for the rest of the weekend. We made a couple of changes between the sessions, but we don't yet have a clear picture of where we are at the moment. It's nice to see so many people from our factory in Faenza here to support us."

Jean-Eric Vergne:

 "This is my first time at Monza in a Formula 1 car and it definitely feels fast! I have been getting used to running with very little downforce and we still have some work to do to try and improve our performance level. The team did a good job today in terms of working through a packed test programme and now it's a case of studying the data, trying to work out the best car set-up for qualifying and for the race. I have to say that driving for an Italian team at Monza in front of such a big crowd, including many of our people from the factory added something special to the experience."

Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer:

 "As always in Monza, like all the other teams, we have brought a one-off aero package for the STR7 and our first job this morning was to assess the new front and rear wings. After that, we looked at various set-up options, aimed at optimising the car in this low downforce configuration. We are not yet happy with the way the car has been performing around here and we will have to study the data overnight to see if we can get a bit more out of the package. Both drivers had very long runs in race configuration towards the end of the session and in terms of car reliability, it was a good day, allowing us to work through all our planned programme."