A breath-taking purpose-built facility, this year we’re looking forward to enjoying a weekend at home with Daniil! 2018 was a short-lived affair for Toro Rosso Honda as both drivers were forced to retire due to a technical issue early in the race.
In the opening laps, both Pierre and Brendon spun within a few moments of each other. With something clearly not being right, the decision was made to retire the cars. Perched in the shadow of the towering Caucasus Mountains, a combination of public and private roads make for excellent grip allowing drivers to push the limits.
Many of the 18 turns around the track are slow corners, meaning that when it comes to set-up, we have to find a compromise between suiting those and the long high-speed straights. We’ll be hoping for a good result in Sochi, giving us confidence heading home to the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks.
Toyoharu Tanabe, Technical Director: “After the very high speeds in Monza, followed by the special requirements of a street circuit in Singapore, we come to a more conventional type of track in Sochi. Its main characteristics are a lot of 90 degree turns where, just like in Singapore, good driveability from the PU side will be an important factor.
“The straights are also quite long here and energy management will not be issue as we have plenty of data from the past. Despite experiencing some difficulties in Singapore, we still came away with a podium finish and now we have just a couple of days to prepare as well as possible, aiming for another positive result in Russia.”