Toro Rosso, Key: “Engineers, especially in Formula 1, are incredibly competitive people”

In a long interview given to the microphones of the official Toro Rosso website, James Key explained the life of an engineer within the world of Formula One, underlining how, despite the little attention from the media, the role of the engineer is of considerable importance in a hyper-competitive world like that of racing. The current Technical Director of the Faenza Scuderia briefly explained the work process that each engineer carries out in the two offices of Faenza and Bicester, specifying that every mind present in the factory is of fundamental importance for the success of the single-seater.

Here are the words of James Key: “It's not often talked about, but it would be right to do so: engineers, especially in Formula 1, but this applies to any other sector where you work at the cutting edge, are incredibly competitive people. And this is precisely why they chose to do this job. Confronting new realities that hide a myriad of unknowns, knowing that you are competing with colleagues from other teams, is already a great challenge. The desire for competition is something truly appreciated by everyone, in every team. It's really inspiring, because we're always surrounded by creative minds, always focused and ready to ask, “Well, how are we going to solve this problem? What is the right balance to make the cars go faster?”. You have no other point of reference other than your internal targets."

“It is possible to be completely wrong or you can come up with the best solution. Well, we won't really know where we stand until qualifying in Melbourne is over. But in any case we will first have to go through the entire phase of analysis of the factors that will influence the competitiveness of the car for the 2017 season. In fact, I don't know if we have already done enough and I don't think that any other team is already at the end of this process, but we are experiencing In any case, an exciting moment, while outlining what we think could be the appropriate solutions and then acquiring any new data during development" he concluded.

Roberto Valenti