Motorsport Week continues its end-of-season review pieces with Toro Rosso, which returned to the podium places and came tantalisingly close to a top five position in the standings, as it scored its best points haul.
There are usually smirks pre-season when Franz Tost takes to the stage and grandly announces that there is no reason why Toro Rosso cannot target a top five position in the Constructors’ Championship. But each year through the hybrid era it placed a solid seventh, peaking with the standout Max Verstappen/Carlos Sainz Jr. season in 2015, until last season, when it slipped to ninth amid being used as a test bed for Red Bull and Honda.
This year Tost’s ambition once again went unrealised. But it fell just six points shy of fifth-placed Renault and scored two stunning podiums as it bid farewell to the Toro Rosso name in some style. The groundwork it had put down with Honda through 2018 paid off, in spite of taking on a rookie with no prior experience and then having a mid-season driver change foisted upon it.
Those two podium positions represented astonishing highs for a team that went 11 years without registering a top three finish. In Germany an early switch to slicks paid off as Daniil Kvyat rose from obscurity into second position as the track dried, relinquishing a position only to Sebastian Vettel, keeping a buffer over ostensibly faster front-runners and other midfielders. It was a brilliant gamble from the team, with the only misfortune being that Alexander Albon did not also profit, having been spectacular on his first experience in the wet weather. That was a stunning day in the sun – or rather rain – for Toro Rosso, but the team had to wait just a few more months for an even better result. It needed a dollop of fortune, and ironically came at the expense of a podium for ex-driver Albon, but Gasly led the midfield all weekend, gapping the rest of the pack, to put himself in the pound seats. The drag fight to the line neatly demonstrated Honda’s progress; out-pacing a Mercedes just two years ago was an unfathomable proposition.
.jpg)
But Germany and Brazil were not mere flukes for Toro Rosso’s STR14 was a solid package, perhaps best shown when Gasly returned to the scene, immediately gelling with the car. Toro Rosso scored points in 15 grands prix, as a second year of Honda – and craved-for engine stability – freed up more team members to focus on aerodynamic gains, rather than mere engine integration, boosted by the use of a 2018 Red Bull rear end. Toro Rosso also kept up in the development race, and only truly struggled in a handful of grand prix – but considering the competitive nature of the midfield this was the norm. Of the events where it didn’t score points it was in the mix in Azerbaijan (Kvyat was off-roaded by Daniel Ricciardo), Italy (Gasly was compromised by the Vettel/Stroll carnage) and Austin (Gasly was nerfed out by Sergio Perez). Only in France, Austria and Russia was it truly mired in anonymity.
Circumstance played a role in Toro Rosso using three drivers through 2019, including two burned by Red Bull Racing, but it acted as a help rather than a hindrance to its cause. Albon was on the pace immediately, in spite of his inexperience, and showed a resilience to bounce back from low moments, such as his rise from the pits to the points in China. Losing him mid-season could have been a blow but replacement Gasly hit the ground running and showed a determination to prove himself after such a poor first half of 2019. Gasly dragged what he could out of the STR14 and was undoubtedly Toro Rosso’s best performer, a world away from the driver who was so ill at ease in the RB15 pre-summer. The returning Kvyat was refreshed and raring to go after spending 2018 out of a race seat, learning a new role as a Ferrari development driver. Kvyat was slightly shaded by Albon, and then more so by Gasly, but the shock rostrum result in Germany was undoubtedly a redemptive result for the Russian, who had become a father just 24 hours previous – talk about a top weekend.
.jpg)
It may still be owned by Red Bull, and be largely at the beck and call of the energy drinks company, but for the first time in a while Toro Rosso looked like a team standing on its own two feet.
“I think this year is really like I can see a pretty big step forward compared to when I first joined in the way the team operates,” said Gasly, who has been with Toro Rosso on and off since his test driver says in 2015.
“Just the evolution and the way we work, also as a driver we can feel it took a step forward. I think this year is the best year for Toro Rosso in the points in the championship, for me the whole operation and organisation the team took a step forward compared to 2017.”
The challenge for Toro Rosso – or rather Alpha Tauri – will be to build on its encouraging 2019 season. Continuity will assist its cause but it will surely be wary of an improving Racing Point and an Alfa Romeo team keen to bounce back from a subdued season. Maybe, just maybe, it will get to Tost’s promised land of P5…
Discussion about this post