Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost has admitted that matching their 2008 performances could prove difficult this season.
Team boss not sure whether 2008 levels can be reached
Toro Rosso launched their new car in Barcelona on Monday, with team principal Franz Tost admitting that matching their 2008 performances could prove difficult.
The Italian team debuted their Ferrari-powered STR4 chassis at the Circuit de Catalunya, one month after sister team Red Bull Racing gave their Renault-powered RB5 its maiden run.
Both chassis are, in effect, the same, having been designed by Adrian Newey and built by Red Bull Technology.
Toro Rosso beat the supposedly 'senior' Red Bull team last season, with Sebastian Vettel handing them a breakthrough victory in the Italian Grand Prix.
But Tost said that, with Vettel departing for Red Bull and new rules also coming into effect this year, it was difficult to predict whether the Faenza-based outfit could match the sixth place they achieved in last year's Constructors' Championship.
"All race teams should have the same targets: to win every race they enter!" he enthused. "Of course, this is not going to happen and even matching our 2008 showing will be difficult, as the sport enters a new era.
"Therefore our target has to be to leave every race track on a Sunday night, knowing we have done the best job we could. The results will then depend on how everyone else has done."
Indeed, with 2009 bringing a swathe of new regulations governing aerodynamics, the introduction of KERS and the re-introduction of slick tyres, Tost said a small team like Toro Rosso might find it more difficult to react than a large manufacturer team.
"Looking at the major changes to the technical regulations, these do have a downside for us, because historically, whenever rules have changed significantly, it is always the bigger, more established teams who have the technical resources and experience to react quickly in adapting to those changes," he said. "It was the long period of stability in the rules which allowed Toro Rosso to be so competitive last year."
Ahead of schedule
While Toro Rosso were the last team to launch their 2009 car, Tost pointed out that they are still ahead of schedule compared with 12 months ago, when they were forced to start the season with their 2007 runner.
"This year is already looking great as we are five races ahead of schedule, given that last year we did not get to race the '08 car until the sixth round of the season - in Monaco!" he said.
"But seriously, with the continued support of Red Bull, Scuderia Toro Rosso has grown in several ways in the past 12 months. The team is bigger, having expanded its facility in Faenza and we have taken on more staff."
Toro Rosso, the smallest team in F1, are alone amongst their peers in bucking the worldwide economic downturn and actually increasing their staff numbers.
However, although Tost said that the cost-cutting measures agreed recently between the FIA and FOTA would help, he explained that their recruitment drive reflected the need to become a constructor in their own right by next year.
"We will add staff in the design department as well as the aerodynamic department," he said. "But in the rest of the departments we are quite full with people.
"Currently in Faenza we have around 178 people and at the end of the season and beginning of 2010 I assume we will have around 250 people."
Tost also expressed the hope that Toro Rosso's line-up of Sebastien Bourdais and newcomer Sebastien Buemi can help make up for the departure of Vettel.
"As for our driver pairing, in 2008 we effectively started the season with two F1 novices, but this time, Bourdais has 18 grands prix under his belt, and this year's rookie, Buemi, has shown well in winter testing," he added.
