Montreal, June 9th 2016.- Carlos Sainz has already done the track-walk around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and now works with his team before he steps tomorrow in the Toro Rosso STR11 for the first Free Practice session of the Canadian GP. Today weather was rainy in Montreal and forecasts suggest it may stay the same throughout the weekend. As usual, weather is always very unpredictable this time of the year.

Carlos is conscious that the seventh round of the Championship may not be the most profitable one for his chassis, but he wants to fight back this situation by working even closer with his team.

"Here it will be hard to be on the points. The characteristics of this track play against us. Straights are very long and turns are very slow. It will be tough, but we must give everything. The Force Indias should be ahead, McLaren brings some updates. Haas will perform well with the 2016 Ferrari engine. It will be tough, but as always we'll give our best and points may be possible. I want to believe I can be P8 in the race if we do a perfect work", he said.

The Toro Rosso is a fast car on quick turns, but it's one of the slowest ones when it comes to straights, which are very common in Montreal's layout. This can have consequences, as Carlos explains: "Being slow on straights means that our fuel consumption is higher, but it also means that we lose brake and tyre temperature and that can be difficult to handle in the race. But we'll do as much as we can. I believe that with the steps forward we've been doing as a team we'll be walking in the right direction and that points will be achievable".

"Fast turns generate more temperature on the tyre, but with so many long straights their temperature decreases a lot and when you brake at 340 kilometers/hour it's easy to lock-up the wheel as the tyre is not at the right temperature".
    
NEW THINGS IN THE PIPELINE
Toro Rosso works on new parts for its STR11 chassis, given that its engine will stay in its 2015 specification form. "Our first package will arrive in Austria, and if it's not there then it will be in Silverstone. There we'll enjoy our first aerodynamic package. It should give us a few tenths to compensate the improvements others have done so far on the engine side".

Carlos says he's in a good moment and that the team is also improving. The atmosphere within the Faenza-based structure is good ahead of Canada and Baku, two of the most delicate races the team will face this year.

"The team keeps on improving a lot. I know I've had two very good races and I'm very happy with the way things are going, so I want to make the most out of this and get good results. Now we'll go to two circuits that don't suit us very well, but the team is improving and with Daniil's arrival I believe there's a very positive trend within the team. We lost it in Monaco, but I'm over that and the car is going well", he said. "There are still a few things we can improve as a team, but we must admit we've already improved a lot since last year. Monaco was the first time that a slow stop affected our track position. That happened in a key moment, but these sort of things can happen".

Free Practice for the Canadian GP will begin tomorrow at 10:00 Montreal time (16:00 Spanish time). Free Practice 2 will begin at 14:00 local time (20:00 in Spain). As usual, we will cover them live through our Twitter account @carlosainz as we keep track of Carlos Sainz efforts through both sessions.