By Andrew Cutler
February 23 2013

Scuderia Toro Rosso had a productive four days in Barcelona, logging 329 trouble-free laps around the same course where they will race in mid-May. Now they have just less than a week to evaluate and assess what they've learned before making one last stab at preparing to start the 2013 campaign.

Daniel Riccardo held down the driving duties on Tuesday and Wednesday, putting 143 laps on the STR8 as the squad evaluated various aero bits, set-up options, driver settings and suspension options, all while using the harder compound tires. Jean-Eric Vergne took over for the balance of the week, logging 186 laps while running through many similar checks, but with the soft tires on Thusrday and both rain tire options (thanks to the weather) on Friday.

"A very productive day",commented Daniel after Wednesday, "testing various suspension options, which was very interesting and has provided us with plenty of data to look at. Therefore it was not a day for the time sheets, but one during which we learned a lot. It’s been interesting evaluating the Pirelli tyres, which have different characteristics to those from last year, but we will need some higher temperatures before we get an accurate picture of how they perform."

After Friday's run, Jean-Eric said that it was; "Another productive day, even with the rain. We had many things to test, especially on the aero side and I feel we got some good answers. Later, it was useful for me to drive on the Extreme and Intermediate Pirellis and I got a good understanding of how they behave, even if the conditions were extremely cold, so it was actually surprising we had rain and not snow! Now I am looking forward to the final test, which will be very important for everyone."

While it might be a bit early yet to read too much into this, Jean-Eric's best Friday lap was the 3rd fastest top team mark, which - hopefully - means that the STR8 will prove to be as good in the rain as the STR7 was.

The final pre-season test will bring the teams back to Barcelona, starting on the 28th and lasting through the 3rd of March.