Motorsport Week resumes its team-by-team mid-season review with Toro Rosso, whose up-and-down season has taken many twists and turns, including a return to the podium.
High point: Solid race performance in Germany with a podium
Low point: Anonymous displays in France and Austria
Having been used as a testbed for large swathes of 2018 – as Honda prepared for its partnership with Red Bull Racing – Toro Rosso has cut a more competitive figure in 2019, albeit its season following a similar fashion bar one aberration. Eye-catching pre-season form, with the usual target of P5, was followed by a smattering of points and disappointing displays, sometimes hampered by chassis limitations, other times by strategic setbacks, and sometimes through driver mistakes.
Only this year it finds itself actually occupying that P5 in the Constructors’ Championship, largely on account of its inspired performance and decision-making at the rain-hit German Grand Prix. Daniil Kvyat’s backmarker status left him as the guinea pig and he rose to a stunning third, capturing Toro Rosso’s well-deserved first podium in 11 years, while Alexander Albon’s race-long pace in fact meant sixth was a slightly underwhelming final result. But it was a reward of 22 points, without which Toro Rosso would be ninth overall and not fifth, having had the eighth-fastest car for much of the campaign.
But to place Toro Rosso’s position solely on its Germanic bonanza would be a disservice to the team, not to mention overlooking the importance of grasping chances when they come. Toro Rosso did not let its opportunity slip. Both of its drivers have more points finishes (six and five) than the four each amassed by Renault's drivers. Under Jody Egginton, who replaced McLaren-bound James Key as Technical Director, the STR14 has been a compliant package, with the chassis-power unit cohesion naturally assisted by a year’s worth of experience with Honda. Its closer alignment with Red Bull also means its aerodynamic resources have been better utilised, using last year’s RB14 non-listed components where it can, as permitted under the regulations, though the chassis is naturally Toro Rosso’s own design.
That has allowed Toro Rosso’s technical staff to zero in on the areas where the greatest gains can be unearthed. It has also been freed from substantial power unit development, after taking on a lot of the 2018 legwork. It does, though, now have a potentially unwanted mid-season task in hand in the wake of Red Bull’s decision to demote Pierre Gasly. When Toro Rosso had Kvyat foisted upon it in 2016 the Russian crumbled and scored just eight points in 30 races before he was sacked. Toro Rosso must learn from that experience and give Gasly all the support he needs, both for the sake of its driver on a human element, and for its own prospects of retaining its lofty championship position.
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That, points-wise, this is already the second-best season of Daniil Kvyat’s rollercoaster career highlights the heart-warming rejuvenation that the 25-year-old has experienced. Kvyat was handed another lifeline by Red Bull after spending 2018 as Ferrari’s development driver, convinced that his year out of the limelight – and in a different role – was the break and reset needed to return stronger. Kvyat has cut a much more confident figure this year, looking like someone enjoying racing again, and he has scored points in half of the 12 grands prix. The high point, of course, was the strategic gamble that facilitated his improbable rise to the podium places in Germany, whereupon securing third he revealed the recent birth of his and partner Kelly’s first child.
If that wasn’t a tale to melt the heart then you’ve had an emotion bypass. Longer-term it remains to be seen whether this is the start of a second career or a farewell tour. Toro Rosso ostensibly remains the place where Red Bull’s new stars are trained and, at 25, Kvyat is the senior of the company’s quartet, and for the rest of the campaign will be paired alongside a driver now regarded as damaged goods. Such is the unpredictability of Red Bull’s scheme that Kvyat’s 2020 potential ranges from Max Verstappen’s team-mate to out of the sport altogether.
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The remarkable rise and rise of Alexander Albon continues at unabated pace. Most of the F1 paddock had not heard of Albon in early 2018 and yet 18 months later he has already been thrust from Toro Rosso to Red Bull as part of a 2020 assessment. Off-track Albon has grown immensely across the first half of the season, transformed from a nervous figure unsure of his surroundings to someone with substantial self-assurance – though not arrogance – which is a natural evolution expected from a rookie. That self-deprecation has helped on occasion, especially when he binned the car on his first lap of testing.
A mature drive to ninth in Bahrain netted him his maiden points while a week later in China he bounced back from a hefty practice crash to add to his tally. That kind of mental resolve is a key character trait lauded by Helmut Marko. He has largely stayed out of trouble and his best result, sixth in Germany, should have been higher. It was that good. He now becomes the first rookie in 12 years to have a race-winning car at his disposal, alongside the oft-touted once-in-a-generation future-world-champion in Verstappen. Into the lion's den he goes.
