By Andrew Cutler
March 15 2013

At long last, it is time for Scuderia Toro Rosso to see where they stack up against the rest of the paddock after the off-season. Daniel Riccardo and Jean-Eric Vergne took to the streets of Albert Park on Friday to get the STR8 dialed in for this weekend's Australian GP. 

An overcast - but fortunately dry - day greeted the drivers as they headed out for the FP1 session. JEV logged 17 laps with a best time of 1:30.729, putting him in P17 on the charts. Daniel was just behind in P18 with a time of 1:30.969 after 19 laps. Both drivers shaved about two seconds off of those marks in FP2. Daniel vaulted up to P14 on a best lap (of 31) of 1:28.627, and JEV brought his time down to 1:28.968 after 36 laps, leaving him againin P17. 

Here are the team's post Friday comments:

Daniel Riccardo: 

"In FP1 it was soon clear that in terms of balance and set-up we were not where we wanted to be so we made some changes and they helped. I definitely feel that we made progress from morning to afternoon, but not enough, so there is more to do overnight to find more pace."

Jean-Eric Vergne:

"The most obvious change from winter testing has been the higher temperatures and this meant the tyres have worked much better today than they did in Spain. We have quite a bit of work to do to get closer to those ahead and I feel we currently lack some speed. However, our long runs looked pretty good and the balance of our car was okay."

Laurent Mekies, Chief Engineer:

"As expected, the competition is very tight in our part of the grid. Our work is therefore aimed not only at finding the best possible set-up for the rest of the weekend, but also to start moving it forward for the season. In Melbourne, we can usually expect the unexpected and there is a chance of a wet qualifying, while the race here always throws up some suprises. So we must ensure we are ready for whatever circumstances we encounter."