Scuderia Toro Rosso took part in the second day of 2019 winter testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, where Alexander Albon took part in his first session as a Formula 1 Driver - setting the 4th fastest time

Day two of the first Formula 1 Pre-Season test saw Alex take part in his first official test session as a Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1 Driver. Despite an early spin, the Thai driver put in plenty of mileage on his debut - completing 132 laps over the course of the day, with a fastest lap time of a 1:19.301s.
‍
Alex completed two complete race distances around the Circuit de Catalunya, setting the 4th fastest time of the day in the process.

‍
‍Alexander Albon (Car 23):

"Today was up there with one of my all-time great experiences! It's been a really good day. At the start I was thinking to myself 'don't spin it this morning', and that's exactly what I did! It was really tricky out there because the track was so cold that you couldn't drive slowly - as soon as you drive too slow your tyres get cold, it becomes unpredictable and it's like driving on ice.
‍
Once I got into my rhythm it was a smooth day and we had no issues, apart from a couple of spins later on, but I was just exploring the limits to see what the car was capable of.
‍
I did a few laps on Wednesday for our Filming Day, so today wasn't a totally new experience to drive an F1 car, and I've also been in the simulator many times, so I had a general idea of what the car could do.
However, the high speed of the car is definitely new to me and it was a bit of a positive shock - I'm enjoying it a lot!
I'm still smiling from when I got out of the car and I'll continue smiling throughout tonight until tomorrow!"

Jody Egginton (Deputy Technical Director):

"Today was the first proper day in the car for Alex and I think he would agree it has been both productive and enjoyable for him. Following a hiccup during the install which - to be fair to Alex - was not of his making, he quickly got a feel for the car, the track conditions and the tyres, which we know in these cold temperatures is not easy.

From this point onwards, Alex quickly gained confidence building on this through the day, completing his program with a good number of laps.

The power unit has once again run very smoothly all day and we managed to get through a number of important test items learning more about the way the car is behaving. This has given us some strong leads on directions in which to investigate in the short and medium term.

The priority remains to continue to run through the large number of tests to characterise the various areas of the car and, in parallel, the accumulation of mileage.
As such, we are not looking too closely at performance levels right now, but we are satisfied with the progress made today. Daniil will step back in tomorrow to continue where Alex left off and we are looking forwards to learning more about our 2019 package."

‍
Press Release Content: Scuderia Toro Rosso
Media Content: Red Bull Content Pool