STR: Half a million for Silverstone test

Toro Rosso estimate the difference between taking part in the Silverstone Young Driver test and the Abu Dhabi edition is as much as half a million.

Toro Rosso is one of three teams who have opted to run at the latter outing in Abu Dhabi, which many believed was a decision based on logistics.

However, STR's technical director Giorgio Ascanelli has explained that it is more of a financial decision as by running later in the year they can use old race engines and therefore do not have to buy additional engines for the test.

"We have budgeted our resources to support 15 days of testing and we are counting on the fact that eventually the Young Driver Test would occur at the end of the year," Ascanelli told GPWeek.

"We could sustain it with the engine mileage which was left over from the races so a second test in the middle of the season which wasn't planned, for us, half a million? We don't have it."