Scuderia Toro Rosso prepares for an exciting future

Published on 19 August 2014 by Stefan Meens

Scuderia Toro Rosso is famous for spotting talented young racing drivers and giving them a shot at Formula 1. Notable examples are current Infinity Red Bull Racing drivers Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. With Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen confirmed for Toro Rosso’s 2015 campaign, the team is ready for the future on the driver’s front. But how has the outfit developed outside the cockpit?

From a results perspective, it seems the team struggles a bit compared to five years ago, with a young Sebastian Vettel and a car heavily reliant on its Red Bull designed chassis. In fact, the Faenza based outfit claimed its only win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, courtesy of Vettel. 

However, on track results do not always convey the progress made within a racing team, as team principal Franz Tost explains: "You can't compare it to the car of 2007 or 2008 but now as a constructor, Toro Rosso has for sure reached a very high level during this development period.”

The development continues as Red Bull’s satellite team prepares to expand its facilities with a clear aim: "The infrastructure must bring us into the position that, from 2016 onwards, we belong to the five top teams in Formula 1."

The expansion of the Faenza facilities and resources has already begun: "We started two months ago on the second building which will be finished at the end of next year, so then we will have everything under one roof. It means that the co-operation between the different departments will become much easier and communication should increase.”

Tost added: “The windtunnel and aero department will stay in Bicester and the infrastructure has also increased there.”
Toro Rosso is also investing on the personnel front. "We are bringing in more engineers in the coming months and they will be coming into the drawing office and vehicle performance department, which should bring us into a competitive position going into 2015."

Finally, Tost believes the arrival of James Key as technical director has given the team a boost. "He brought in a lot of new ideas and also new engineers. It meant we refreshed the knowledge at Toro Rosso, and gained experience, and that was really a very important step for the team.”