The first day of the European season was a busy one for Scuderia Toro Rosso.
First of all, we staged an early afternoon press conference to welcome Money Service Group as our latest sponsor. The deal was brokered by WWP, the Austrian-based sports marketing company, with well established links to our parent company Red Bull. WWP had already handled Money Service Group’s entry as a sponsor in the world of winter sports, such as downhill skiing.
Team Principal Franz Tost said he valued the extra funding this new deal bought to the team, not just because the money would be ploughed into research and development to help the team move up the grid in the medium to long-term, but also because it was a good omen for the team and the sport of Formula 1 in general, that a brand new sponsor saw this sport as a great platform to promote its services. Money Services Group spokesman, Martin Meier-Pfister stressed that it had not just been a case of choosing Formula 1, but also of deciding to join forces with Scuderia Toro Rosso. “The team and our company share similar values: we are both ambitious and believe in working with precision, style, energy and dynamism,” he told the media crowd.
Jaime Alguersuari didn’t have far to travel for this Grand Prix, just a few kilometres from his home in downtown Barcelona and our Catalan driver was in much demand, sharing the limelight in the FIA press conference this afternoon with fellow Spaniards, Fernando Alonso and Pedro De La Rosa.
“We have some upgrades for this race and hopefully we can see an improvement for Barcelona,” said Jaime. “I hope we will have dry weather so we can really see it and we need to see with the upgrade where the other teams are. It would be nice if we can get into Q3 on Saturday.” This is the first track of the season where Alguersuari will feel at home, not just because it’s in Spain, but because he has driven here in a variety of other formulae. “It definitely means the Friday philosophy will change. I will go with a different mind into FP1 as I do not have to familiarise myself with the track or to learn it. That means I can push from the first minute onwards which is a great help.”
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