Scuderia Toro Rosso will tackle the final eight races of the season with a newtechnical upgrade package and one new driver – you will have to wait a few moredays to find out who he is. Team Principal Franz Tost and Technical DirectorGiorgio Ascanelli answer the obvious questions.

Franz TostThe season got off to a reasonable start with a few points finishes, but thenthe team appeared to get left behind. Why was that?

Toro Rosso had quite a successful start to the season, scoring points in Australiaand China and later, in Monaco, we picked up another one. However, from thenon, we lost touch with the other mid-field runners. There are various reasons forthis: firstly, the other teams improved their cars, regularly producing updates totheir technical package. We introduced a few small updates, but nothing major.For example, we are the only team never to have run with a double diffuser, oneof the key elements to car performance this year. Why? It was a financialdecision. Rather than incur the costs of constant updates, we chose to keepcosts within budget by waiting, before delivering one major update package,which will make its race debut at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Secondly, apart fromthe limitations on car development, we also had one driver who did not live up toour expectations.

Can we really expect to see a step forward in the final part of this season?

We expect that the technical upgrades should see us return to a level ofcompetitiveness that we were able to demonstrate in the second half of lastseason.

How do you rate Buemi’s performance?

Buemi has done a really good job so far. You have to consider that, as the onlyrookie on the grid this year, he is the first real victim of the in-season testing ban.He had therefore never driven at circuits like Silverstone or the Nurburgring in aFormula 1 car, which is completely different to tackling them in other types of car.While he knows the tracks from Formula 3 or GP2, it is not at all the same,because F1 is much more complex and little details like how track conditionsusually change from the third free practice session on Saturday morning, toqualifying that same afternoon, are all part of the package that only comes withexperience. Up until this year, we would have done a minimum of three daystesting at Silverstone for example, prior to the British Grand Prix and at manyother race venues. But you can’t have everything and while we are saving moneythrough not testing, the downside is that young drivers will suffer. What we cansay is that Buemi will be a much more complete driver for the 2010 season.

Giorgio AscanelliWe seem to have slid to the back of the grid over the past few races. Why?There are several factors why our performance hasn’t matched up to what it wasin the second half of last season. The first is that the drivers are very importantand last year, Vettel matured enormously, getting over the difficult phase everyyoung driver does, not understanding why he was fast or slow. A second factorwas that last year, within the limits of our own capabilities, we went down adifferent route to Red Bull Racing, particularly with suspension and the brakingsystem that was different to their car. The third point is that last year we wereracing in an era where the technical rules had been more or less stable for adecade so performance levels flatten out, making it harder to come up withsomething new. This year, the pace of development has speeded up enormouslyand as a small team, we have been unable to keep up with that. Today, Red Bullfor example is producing large steps forward in development on a monthly basis.We cannot do that as we don’t have the manpower. Furthermore, with a youngand inexperienced driver like Buemi, when we do introduce changes, it isnaturally harder for him to adapt to those changes.

Is that a criticism of Buemi?

Absolutely not: to date, he has taken part in just nine grands prix and in four ofthose he retired early. Add in the fact there is no testing and he is getting verylittle time in the car. When a young driver first comes into F1, he is like adaredevil, taking risks, but as his understanding increases and he suffers a fewset backs, it knocks his confidence which then has to be rebuilt. We cannotexpect him to learn any faster: he is trying his best and doing a good job.Remember that when Vettel came to us, he had done one year as a third driverfor BMW and had even taken part in one Grand Prix, but he could do no betterthan qualify eighteenth for us in his first race, in Hungary.We’ve been talking about this technical upgrade for weeks now. What is it?In Hungary we have a major upgrade, which includes the floor, rear wing, rearwing endplates, a nose which has had to pass a new impact test, new brakeducts etc. – pretty much the whole damn lot! We’ve worked our hardest to getthis modification package and to do it this year is much harder than the work wedid last year.

But don’t you just get all the new bits from Red Bull Technology in the UK?

There is a view that the only difference between our car and the Red Bull Racingone is the engine, but that is inaccurate. It involves the engine, gearbox, clutch,hydraulic system, water, oil and electrical systems; and all this on top of theactual aero parts in terms of bodywork. The further complication is that, althoughwe have not run it, our car was designed so that it could incorporate the FerrariKERS system and that is very different to the one used by Renault, around whichthe RB5 was designed. Therefore, we are not in a “cut and paste” situation whenit came to getting the parts. It was not a case of getting a drawing from Red BullTechnology and simply manufacturing it. The two cars might look the same but ifyou try and fit the bodywork from one on the other, it would not fit. The rearsuspension is also different because, in order to maintain the same wheelbase, itneeded a different arrangement.

Will it bring a performance advantage?

I will tell you once we’ve run it at the race track.If you had to situate our car in Hungary specification with Red BullRacing’s development, where would it be?It would be a package equivalent to the one they introduced at the British GrandPrix.

Will it be good enough to score points?

That depends how far forward the other teams have gone, because nothing staysstill in this sport. It’s not as simple as saying ‘last year we made a technical stepforward for the second half of the year and performed well so the same thing willhappen again.’ Last year, the Italian media was keen for me to puff out my chestand say ‘oh yes, I am very clever and I have managed to outperform our Red Bullcousins,’ but the simple answer about the end of last year is that Vettel is a greatdriver. I wasn’t a genius last year, but I don’t think I am an idiot this year!