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SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO
APPOINTS ASCANELLI
AS TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Scuderia Toro Rosso is pleased to announce the appointment of Giorgio
Ascanelli as the
team’s Technical Director. For the past five years, Giorgio has
been working as Technical
Director for Maserati Corse. Prior to that, Ascanelli established excellent
F1 credentials,
including a long spell as Race Engineer and Head of R & D for Ferrari,
with brief stints at
Benetton and McLaren. The 48 year old Italian also has one special link
to Scuderia Toro
Rosso, as he was Gerhard Berger’s race engineer when the Austrian
raced for the Prancing
Horse.
This appointment means that Alex Hitzinger is now free to concentrate
on his original role,
heading up the Advanced Technologies Department for Red Bull Technology,
having
additionally deputised as Toro Rosso Technical Director for the past
few months.
The Sepang circuit hosted
the first test session to run to the new rules, stating that
during the season, teams are restricted to just one car, are limited
on tyre sets and
can run for only three days. This being Formula One, the first session
actually lasted
four days! A ruling states that if rain stops play, as happened on Day
Three, then
testing can be extended. It’s all beginning to sound like a game
of Test Match
Cricket, only not quite so exciting.
The job sheet for the test included the usual pre-race preparations,
as Sepang
hosts the Malaysian GP on 8 April. This included evaluating the two
types of
Bridgestone tyre, evaluating new aero and suspension components, as
well as
looking at some short and long term development on RB3. Day One saw
David
concentrate on aero work as the track was too “green” for
meaningful tyre
evaluation, with tyres and suspension work added to the list on the
second day.
Mark took over on Day Three, losing some time because of the rain, but
got through
most of his programme which also included race and qualifying simulation.
Day
Four, the bonus day, was spent looking at more long term development.
“A very
good test in terms of the mileage covered and the reliability and performance
of the
car,” was how Chief Test Engineer Ian Morgan summed things up.
“The heat and
humidity did not throw up any problems, although it was tiring for the
team who did
a fantastic job of work over six days and nights.”
The first test under the
new ruling stating that a session can run for only three days
lasted….four days. This is Formula 1 after all, not the real world.
It made little
difference to our team who are out in Malaysia for the Grand Prix on
8 April and in
fact, by the time they get home after Bahrain, many of them will have
been away
from home for almost six weeks.
The new rules also state that only one car should be used, so Scott
drove on Day 1,
sharing the car with Tonio on Day 2, before the Italian had the car
to himself for Day
3 and today’s Bonus Day: the test being extended because of rain
on Thursday.
Three main items on our test agenda: putting more miles on the car given
how little
running it did prior to the race in Melbourne, race preparation for
the next Grand Prix,
including evaluating the two types of Bridgestone Potenza tyre and finally,
evaluating
some new aero and suspension components. “In some ways, this was
like an
extension of winter testing for us,” said Chief Engineer Laurent
Mekies. “We had four
busy days and reliability was okay for this stage in the season, but
we still have a lot
of work to do. The new aero and suspension components produced positive
results
and we hope to use some of them as early as next week’s race.”
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