Kevin Ceccon says he is 'one step closer to F1' after Toro Rosso test

The 18-year-old Auto GP champion improved on his best time of Wednesday's running by over a second and is likely to race in GP2 next year, but believes that the day-and-a-half of running in the Toro Rosso stands him in good stead for the future.

"I am one step closer to F1," Ceccon told AUTOSPORT. "But it's difficult to know because this test is all about rookies so there aren't any F1 race drivers and you can't compare yourself to them.

"It's different and you don't know what will happen until you go into a grand prix. but I think that I learned a lot of things.

"A day in an F1 car gives you a lot of other things that other categories can't, so it's very important for my career. The important thing is to use what I've learned in whatever category I do next year."

Ceccon added that he was pleased with the step forward that he has taken since Wednesday.

He spent Thursday morning watching Stefano Coletti driving, and believes that this played a part in him being able to improve.

"It's always better to sleep because when you sleep, you get faster," he said. "Today, the steering wheel was not something incredible, I now know the functions so that is good.

"Then I watched the other driver and learned from Stefano's telemetry. it's good to share the car like this because you learn more.

"The most important thing is that we completely finished the work that the engineers gave to us. That's the most important thing."