Toro Rosso, Key: “There is no analogy between us and Red Bull”

Between Faenza e Milton Keynes, headquarters respectively of the Scuderia Toro Rosso and the senior Red Bull team, are almost fifteen hundred kilometers away. Yet, in recent years, the two teams have moved further apart, at a planning level. The technical director of STR explains it, James key. “Our cars are completely different,” the Briton cut short.

“The rules require each team to develop its own aerodynamics. And this determines most of the rest of the car. Now we also have different engines so that there are very few similarities between the two single-seaters” Key continued. As we know, the situation has not always been this. In the past, Red Bull and Toro Rosso shared some sections of the car. And until last year, using the same power unit Renault, the two teams could share the internal gearbox and hydraulic parts.

The increasingly stringent rules and the adoption of the engine Ferrari have pushed the Italian team to definitively detach itself, on a technical level, from the parent company. “I don't know what Red Bull is doing – continues Key – For example, I have no idea how their front wing works. We have moved away from the point of view of the philosophy of the machine. You can see at a glance that the two cars are completely different.”

The energy drink giant has therefore taken a path diametrically opposed to the new trend of creating cars that make the most of the components of top teams. Solution that sees its maximum application in Haas, a Ferrari customer team that has caused so much discontent.

However, in Toro Rosso they have demonstrated that they are perfectly capable of putting together a competitive single-seater even without the technical support of the senior team. So much so that, both last year and the first races of 2016, we saw some very fit STRs, sometimes capable of keep up with the cars of Ricciardo and Kvyat. 

Lorenzo Lucidi