Brendon Hartley, who is set to make his full debut this season for Toro Rosso after replacing Carlos Sainz Jr. for the final few races of last season, thinks that his team are capable of cracking the top 10 and scoring points in Melbourne.
Hartley and his teammate Pierre Gasly combined for 498 laps in the second week of testing, with the latter ending on an impressive seventh place overall in terms of lap-times. Encouraging signs for Toro Rosso for the coming season? Hartley thinks so.
“Everyone is pumped up and positive,” said the Kiwi.
“The brief from the start of the year was that we wanted to build during the year. Toro Rosso had a really strong start to the year last year and there’s been a lot of changes behind the scenes as well to ensure that we can develop during the year."
“The initial brief from Toro Rosso was that Melbourne might be tough but actually after these test days we’ve exceeded our own expectations and we are definitely in the fight for those points."
“Our goal has to be points. It would be crazy not saying that going into Melbourne."
In the four races Hartley has driven in the F1, he's yet to score any points, with reliability issues being a big problem in the late stages of last season.
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