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Ricciardo revs up

Ricciardo revs up

02/07/2012 07:42:35 PM

Toro Rosso have unveiled a new car for the Formula One season alongside their youthful driving line-up.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo, 22, and new boy Jean-Eric Vergne, 21, were on hand to usher in the new STR7 at the launch on Tuesday.

Toro Rosso have followed the trend and introduced a step between the nose and front chassis and have retained the innovative double floor concept from last year's car.

Team principal Franz Tost is optimistic.

"In 2011 we brought in around 20 new engineers and I think that this was a quite important step to improve our performance because all these people that we brought in brought new knowledge on the technical side," he said.

"Therefore I expect that we will improve our performance which is important otherwise we will not reach our goals."

Ricciardo was pinching himself and was thrilled to finally set eyes on the machine.

"It definitely looks sexy. You know I saw it just a couple of days ago and it was a little bit emotional actually," Ricciardo said.

"The first car from the start of the season with my name on it, knowing that it's really mine, it's really nice, really nice."

"It's got a new feature with the front wing-nose box which I'm sure a lot of people will talk about. It's for some new regulations this year but other than that, a few other little details which I'll test on track soon."

Frenchman Vergne, who narrowly missed out on the Formula Renault 3.5 title in 2011, was rewarded with a full race seat at Toro Rosso to make his F1 debut and was a little more reserved in his appraisal.

"I'm more counting down the days for the first test in Jerez. That comes first and it is quite an important test just to get ready for the first Grand Prix," Vergne said.

"But yeah, of course I'm looking forward to this Grand Prix. A nice car is a fast car so wait and see until the first grand prix how beautiful it is."

 
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

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