Toyota drivers Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock are hoping to improve the balance of their cars after finding their TF109s difficult to drive in Friday practice at Sakhir.
Along with Ferrari and BMW, Toyota was hoping its winter testing experience at the desert track would give it a head start over rivals – but both drivers said the much higher temperatures had resulted in trickier track conditions.
Despite setting a strong third fastest time, 0.25s behind pacesetter Nico Rosberg’s Williams, Trulli said he was not yet comfortable with his car’s set-up.
“We collected a lot of data here during our winter tests at this circuit but the conditions today were very different,” he said.
“So we had to change some of our set-up in order to suit the car to these temperatures, which are much hotter.
“There is also quite a lot more sliding around than we had in the winter but I guess that's the same for everyone.
“We still need to find a bit more driveability in the car but it's not a bad start to the weekend.”
Glock echoed Trulli’s concerns about car balance after posting the eighth best time.
“During our winter tests at this circuit we had a good, consistent pace but so far today I've found the car quite hard to drive,” said the German.
“The lap times aren't bad but I've been struggling for balance.
“So we'll have to work overnight to sort out our direction for tomorrow and to get the car back to where it should be.
“If we can do that then I'm sure we can keep up our strong start to the year.”
Despite the drivers’ reservations, chief engineer Dieter Gass judged it “a very good day for us overall”.
He added: “Even though we mainly had fine conditions during winter testing here, there is still a significant difference in temperature.
“So we had to reassess some of the items we had already tried.
“We have some updates in aerodynamics and brake cooling here and we ran through our programme without issues.
“The tyre behaviour certainly seems less critical than in the last few races. So this is a very good baseline for another strong showing on Sunday.”
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