After a stunning season with the two rookie drivers last year, Toro Rosso’s switch to Ferrari power could lead to embarrassment from the team’s sister team Red Bull, who have stuck with the Renault engines.
“We have been though an incredibly busy three months,” explained James Key, technical director. “Our directions for the STR11 were well established in August last year but when the engine change decision was made we had to put a large part of the project on hold.”
The power unit has dictated a large part of the architecture of the car, meaning development of the STR11 was postponed until after the power unit had been decided. Of course, Toro Rosso rose to the challenge.
Toro Rosso will be the only team on the grid with a year old spec power unit and, though the Ferrari power engine impressed last year, there has been a definite step forward which the team will be missing out on.
“We will need to compensate as best as possible with chassis development,” said Key.
It’s not all change at Toro Rosso, with drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz will be spending their second year in Formula One at the team. The pair go from being rookie’s last year and, with added pressure and added experience, both drivers hope to improve on their impressive rookie seasons.
Toro Rosso’s aim for this year will be the same as last year, taking into account all the changes they’ve faced over the winter and the challenges ahead.
“It will not be easy, but we know that we had the chassis and drivers to achieve that in 2015 but too many problems stood in our way, so we will try again in 2016,” said Key.
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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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