SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO 2015

…this is how we do it!

The Team

Scuderia Toro Rosso has been competing in the Formula 1 World Championship since 2006. The team was created with a view to finding two extra cockpits for the stars of the future coming through the ranks of the Junior Driver Programme. As we reach the significant milestone of our tenth year in the Championship, the team’s driver line-up is the perfect synthesis of that goal, as we go into battle with two rookies, Carlos Sainz and , who have a combined age of just 37! When the team was first established it operated partly as a satellite to , running a car designed mainly by Red Bull Technology. However, for the past five years, Scuderia Toro Rosso has run completely independently, doing all the car design and manufacturing work in-house in Faenza. This necessitated a major expansion programme for the factory, which is still on-going and the Italian side of the operation is supported by the team’s wind tunnel facility in Bicester, England. On the engine front, we will tackle our second year powered by Renault. Team Principal has been at the helm since 2005, while the technical side is managed by Technical Director . Currently the team has one win and one to its name, both courtesy of , who produced the fairytale result at the team’s home race, the in , back in 2008. Scuderia Toro Rosso can also be proud of having and in its ranks, seeing them progress as drivers and be selected to race for Red Bull Racing. Here, Tost, Key and other members of the technical team take us through what’s new for 2015, in terms of the car’s design and development, what’s happening in Bicester, the organisation and the team at the track.

Franz Tost Team Principal

“The 2015 season does not only mark a very special occasion, as Scuderia Toro Rosso reaches its tenth year in Formula 1, but it also represents a fantastic opportunity to showcase the team’s progress. Over the last few seasons we’ve focused on reinforcing the structure of the team, investing in new personnel in many areas in order to make sure we face the upcoming season stronger than ever before. All this has only been possible thanks to our sponsors: Red Bull being the main one, supporting us from the very beginning, Cepsa, Nova Chemicals and Sapinda. Now I’m pleased to welcome another sponsor, the well-known brewery Estrella Galicia, who’s just joined our team. I’m happy to have all them on board for this exciting season together. It’s a pleasure to see how, year after year, our partners continue to trust and remain loyal to us; this stability definitely helps our continuity and progress from all points of view – technical, organisational and human.

“After finishing seventh in the Constructors’ Championship last year, our main target is to finish in fifth position and I’m confident that we can achieve this in 2015.

“Our driver line-up is the youngest in Formula 1 history, but this is no reason to set us back or think we can’t achieve our goals; all the contrary: young drivers are always hungry for success and we will make sure we use this positively to our advantage. It’s true that Max is only 17, but that’s just a number on his ID, and when you look into his racing career you quickly see that racing is not new to him. He has 10 years’ experience if we include his karting years and he’s always shown fantastic speed and quick adaptability, so this time will be no different. He’s a fast learner and I’m convinced that, as long as we give him a competitive car, he will be up there fighting for good results very quickly. He already showed that he was ready for this next step during his FP1 outings last year.

“Carlos has bigger experience in single-seaters and, just as his new teammate, also learns fast. After becoming the youngest driver to win the Renault World Series 3.5 Championship last year, I’m confident that, even though he’s only 20-years-old, his racing experience will

allow him to get to grips with F1 straight away. I guess it will be very special for Carlos to kick- off his F1 season on home soil and in front of his home crowd in Jerez and we are sure he will do a great job.

“Another improvement that will allow the team to steadily continue moving forward is the fact that our new STR4 building here in Faenza is nearly complete and will be fully operational this summer. It will be attached to the STR3 building and it will mean that we are all finally working under one same roof, drastically improving the team’s internal communications. If we also add the fact that we’ve already improved the wind tunnel in Bicester, UK, as well as making sure that all communications with our colleagues over there run as smoothly as if they were here in Italy, we can be sure that we will be making big progress and a huge step forward in terms of technical development.

“The technical team led by James Key has done an extraordinary job to start this year strongly, passing all crash tests for the new STR10 first time and not losing any valuable time in the process. I’m very proud of this and it gives us confidence to keep on believing in ourselves, to be certain that we are definitely on the right track and to continue working hard to keep move forward. I know the team is constantly under a lot of pressure but they are aware of how to deliver and it’s great to see that we are all moving together, as a team, in the same direction. We’ve also learned a lot from the previous seasons and this will make us much stronger in 2015. We need to assure we make the most out of every opportunity that arises out on track and I’m confident that this year we certainly have the mentality to do just that, keep on improving and meet our targets.”

“2015 will be our second season in a row joining forces with Renault, who have worked very hard over the winter and will help power us to our objectives. We’re happy to continue our relationship together and, after seeing how much effort they’ve invested, I’m confident we will be able to close the gap to our main competitors in 2015. The fact that this will be our second year using Renault’s 1.6 litre turbocharged and two energy recovery systems will make it easier for all of us to keep on improving, understanding and developing the STR10 throughout the season. I also look forward to adding plenty of miles to our tally

straight away in testing, making the most out of our time on track before the start of the season and making sure we are 100% ready to race when we get to Australia, having covered our test programmes successfully together with Renault.

“I’m delighted to see there are 20 races back on the calendar, with the Mexican Grand Prix returning after 23 years. It will be a very demanding season for us all, I have no doubt about that, but we are ready for the challenge here at Scuderia Toro Rosso. I look forward to seeing F1 put on another good show; we will definitely make sure we contribute to it with two young drivers that are eager to do just that!”

Max Verstappen

Born 30 September, 1997 (17 years old) Dutch - born in Hasselt, Belgium Race number: 33

Max Verstappen was born into a family of racing drivers (his father Jos is a former Formula 1 driver; his mother Sophie, a successful kart racer) and he began karting at the age of four. He started competing in the Mini Junior championship before graduating to the Rotax Minimax class, winning the Belgian championship in 2006. A year later he went on to win the Dutch Minimax championship.

His successful karting career continued with him clinching the 2009 Flemish Minimax and Belgian KF5 championships. He stepped up to international karting a year later, winning the WSK Euro Series and WSK World Series as well as finishing runner-up in the KF3 World Cup. His visits to the top step of the podium continued and in 2011 the Dutchman won the WSK Euro Series. A year later he won the WSK Master Series and in 2013 he went on to win both the European KF and KZ as well as the World KZ championships. 2014 was Max’s maiden season in single-seater racing, competing in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. He finished third with 10 race wins to his name. He joined the in August 2014.

In 2015 Max makes his Formula 1 debut, racing alongside Carlos Sainz at Scuderia Toro Rosso. He has selected 33 as his race number and, at seventeen years and one hundred and sixty- seven days old, he will become the youngest driver to start a World Championship race when he lines up in Melbourne. He already became the youngest driver to participate at a Grand Prix weekend during the first free practice at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen Career highlights

2006 Rotax Max Minimax class karting, Belgian championship winner

2007 Dutch Minimax karting championship winner

2009 Flemish Minimax championship and Belgian KF5 championship winner

2010 KF3 World Cup runner-up; WSK Euro Series and WSK World Series winner

2011 WSK Euro Series winner

2012 WSK Master Series (KF2) winner

2013 European KF and KZ championships champion; World KZ championship winner

2014 3rd in FIA European Formula 3 Championship with 10 race wins

2015 Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 driver

Carlos Sainz

Born 1 September, 1994 (20 years old) Spanish (Madrid) Race number: 55

Carlos Sainz, son of former World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz, started his racing career in karting in 2008. He won several titles, including the KF3 Asia-Pacific and the Monaco Kart Cup. Following this impressive start, in 2010 Red Bull chose him to be a member of the Red Bull Junior Team.

He made his single-seater debut that same year, competing in both Formula BMW Pacific and Europe and winning the BMW Europe Rookie Cup. A year later, the Spaniard won the 2.0 Northern European Cup.

In 2012 he raced in both the FIA European Formula 3 and British Formula 3 championships, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. The following season he raced successfully in GP3, getting two podium finishes, as well as taking part in nine Formula Renault 3.5 Series races. In 2014 he became the youngest Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion, winning seven races.

Throughout his racing career, Carlos has competed in 165 races, winning 29 of them and ending up on the podium in 61 occasions.

In 2015 Carlos makes his debut in Formula 1 at Scuderia Toro Rosso, alongside Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz Career highlights

2008 Asia-Pacific KF3 champion

2009 Junior Monaco Kart Cup winner and European KF3 Championship runner-up

2010 Single-seater debut, Formula BMW Pacific. He becomes part of the Red Bull Junior

Team programme and finishes fourth in Formula BMW Europe. He also races in the

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and European F3 Open, achieving two podium finishes.

2011 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup winner; Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0

runner-up

2012 5th in FIA European Formula 3 Championship. 6th in British F3.

2013 10th in GP3 Series championship; 19th in Formula Renault 3.5 Series

2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion

2015 Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 driver

James Key Technical Director

When it comes to analysing Scuderia Toro Rosso’s prospects for 2015, our Technical Director James Key wisely eschews the tradition of making rash promises, preferring to begin with a look back at our starting point. “Last year’s car was a 24-month project and a tough time in winter testing meant we started on the back foot, we missed out on a lot of understanding of the tyres and chassis and also our new driver (Kvyat) didn’t get the mileage he needed,” states Key. “We worked very hard along with Renault to solve the problems, so to have both cars in the points in the first race and getting into Q3 was a positive step after a difficult beginning. We made a step forward in performance terms in 2014 and the positives we can draw are that, fundamentally, we produced a more competitive package than we'd seen in some time. Also, our development rate was quite reasonable and it was very much an exclusively STR project that we could be proud of.”

However, it’s usually the weak points that produce the most valuable lessons and in 2014, leaving aside bad luck and no-fault accidents, reliability could have been better as could the way the team functioned at the track. “Only two retirements last year were down to self-inflicted reliability problems that came from work carried out at the factory,” maintains Key. “Most of our problems could have easily been avoided. Therefore this year, we need to make better use of the opportunities we have. We’ve reviewed various operational procedures in order to give us cleaner race weekends, which will allow us to focus on doing a good job and making the most of every opportunity on track.”

And what about this year’s STR10? “The car is a real mix of very different approaches in some areas, while also refining and developing what we felt were some of the more solid philosophies of the 2014 car,” says Key. “It will look quite different by the time we get to Race 1 and we've got several very new ideas which have gone into it, which the team is exploring for the first time, which makes it an interesting project. We've pushed the limits of timing much more with STR10 than with passed cars and we're dealing with it really well. We have a pretty aggressive plan for development. We'll turn up to Race 1 with a fundamentally

different car to the one we run in testing. It sounds a bit odd given that there are only three pre-season tests, but you’ve got to start off with getting all the basics pinned down on the chassis side, allowing the drivers to run and then the refinements and performance bits will begin to pop up in Test 3 and Race 1, so the car we launch is not the car we’ll be racing in Melbourne. After that, we will continue to push hard on development throughout the season. The team has an increasingly new look in both our Faenza HQ and facility in Bicester, UK. We have done a fair bit of re-structuring in 2014 and brought many new and experienced people on board as well as internally promoting to cover new key positions. Our facilities are also continuously improving. The STR10 will be the first car designed with most of the planned STR technical structure in place, the motivation is high within the team right now and a lot of hard work is being covered.”

Naturally, the performance of STR10 will also hang on what Renault can do with the power unit and the recent relaxation of engine development rules means Key is cautiously optimistic on this front. “Renault did make progress after recovering from a very difficult start, so if that trajectory continues then I think we should be back in reasonable shape,” reckons our Technical Director. “They are pushing extremely hard to absolutely maximise the allowances in the regulations, so development is on-going. As everyone knows, Mercedes set the bar extremely high, so I think the important thing is to try and make up some ground on them. To level with them would be a major achievement in the space of just a matter of months, but if we can at least close the gap a bit, then the benefits are obvious.”

Ben Waterhouse Deputy Technical Director

Ben Waterhouse fulfils a role that is a new one at Scuderia Toro Rosso, namely that of Deputy Technical Director. The reason for it is not hard to understand: with a 20 race calendar and five test sessions during that year, that’s more or less 25 weeks of track activity, or half a working year away from the factory. Add in the fact that our wind tunnel and Aerodynamics Department is in the UK then clearly our Technical Director has had to split his time across a lot of activities and travel on a weekly basis. Employing a Deputy Technical Director has allowed the TD to spend more time on technical matters and share the workload across multiple locations.

“We need to keep projects going full speed all the time, so with me coming on board, it effectively relieves James Key of some of the day-to-day duties,” explains Waterhouse. “There are now two of us to keep the momentum going and ensure that everything is being followed in the right direction because, as a team grows, it becomes more difficult to keep it in line, to keep everything tight, so it just requires a gentle nudge now and again. It means we can keep multiple projects on different fronts in different locations all going in a common direction to maximise the performance.”

When it comes to work on the new car, it’s naturally the aerodynamic side that takes centre stage. “The nose is the most significant change for 2015,” says Waterhouse, referring to the banning of the type of nose arrangement featured on last year’s Toro Rosso and other cars. “The majority of the rest of the car is just evolution because there is an element of stability to the regulations. However, the nose clearly has a strong influence on everything, so from an aerodynamic perspective, the concept is certainly different to what we had in 2014. Last year’s car was developed to a whole new level and STR10 is taking the next step in terms of development on that front. We've been very ambitious with the targets that have been set. The working relationship between Bicester and Faenza is tighter than it's ever been before and I think the car has been conceived with a much stronger vision of its performance being the driving force for the whole car. That requires closer cooperation between all the departments and that has developed really well over the course of the past year.”

Waterhouse’s role is a new one and he works closely with a similarly new capability at Toro Rosso formed just 18 months ago, namely the Vehicle Performance Group. “Its remit is to maximise the performance of the car and therefore it takes a very central role in terms of defining the targets, not just for what happens on track, but also within the aerodynamic department and the design department to ensure that performance is at the forefront of every single decision taken,” says Waterhouse. “Effectively, this department is the eyes and ears of the Technical Director to make sure that the decisions which are being made in terms of car concepts are those which produce the quickest car. There's no other factor, other than performance, which we need to be considering. We're well-resourced in this area, with some really good people and now we must ensure this mentality, this view of performance, is propagated throughout the company.”

Paolo Marabini Chief Designer - Composites and Structures

It’s probably easier to list the areas of the car that do not emerge from this department than those that do! “We work on the chassis, the impact structures and other parts of the car,” explains Paolo Marabini, Chief Designer for composites and structures. “Here, we design the composite parts of the suspension, the gearbox, the wings, effectively all the structural elements of the car,” he says.

Almost every component on a Formula 1 car is subject to a regulation and so this department also runs the laboratory that works on the homologation of the car. “We work to the rules laid down by the FIA, testing components,” explains Marabini. “Chassis, suspension, wings, everything that is structural is tested prior to being built up into a car. This is the sign-off procedure and also the validation process for the part of our R & D work that defines the design.”

With aerodynamics being the most important performance vector in Formula 1, what comes out of our wind tunnel in Bicester has a profound effect on the work carried out in Faenza. “At the design stage we work closely with Bicester and in terms of STR10, we have paid much closer attention to every small detail, optimising the lines of communication with Bicester and the other departments,” reveals Marabini. “There is still work to do in this area but we are going in the right direction. We are paying a lot more attention to the details on every component of the car, each one studied with the aim of improving car performance. Our aim is that every new part has to be better than its predecessor. Therefore a lot of attention has been focussed on the car’s aerodynamics, the installation of the power unit, to give the car the best possible layout, combining the performance of the power unit with what comes from the aerodynamics.”

12 months ago, Formula 1 faced a technical revolution, whereas this year, the regulations have not changed that much, although there are a few modifications to deal with. “We have a new rule regarding the design of the nose of the car and also its position on the

chassis,” reveals Marabini. “So we have adapted to meet the needs of these new rules and in order to pass the crash test we have had to deal with different data.” The minimum weight of the car has changed very slightly and weight is another area that has exercised the minds of the Toro Rosso designers. “For 2015 we have worked a great deal on this element, trying to reduce the weight of the car and to optimise the weight of each component,” concludes Marabini.

“2015 is a very important year for our team and behind all our work has been the need to produce a reliable car that is efficient in terms of the power unit, the aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics.”

Matteo Piraccini Chief Designer - Mechanical & Systems

Matteo Piraccini oversees a department that is responsible for three key areas of the car: firstly, the design of the suspension and control elements such as the power steering, steering column and so forth; secondly, the cooling and fuel systems and thirdly, the gearbox and hydraulics.

“With no major changes to the rules, our main priority has been developing the car from what we had,” says Piraccini. “A lot of the chassis performance comes down to the aero side and our aero department is really competitive and pushing very hard.” That’s Piraccini’s polite way of saying that, as is always the case in Formula 1, the aerodynamicists are pushing for ever more extreme car packaging to optimise aero performance. “That has compelled us to design a completely new layout for the car with many solutions put in place the nature of which we have not tackled at STR in the past.”

Last year’s switch to Renault power meant that, within strict rules laid down by the FIA, some synergies became possible, working with Red Bull Technology. “We are supplied with the power unit by Renault, but all the ancillaries on the car relating to the power unit are produced in-house,” reveals Piraccini. “We have pushed as never before in terms of systems because our cooling layout is also something very different to last year. That has involved pushing through the R & D work on a new specification and approach to radiator core design.

“When it comes to the gearbox and hydraulics, our relationship with Red Bull Technology is based on a design that includes a lot of parts in common. However, when it comes to the layout, the design of the bell housing and gearbox main case is completely in our hands and we have produced a completely new layout to match some tough packaging challenges in these areas.”

This department’s work is conditioned by the demands of other sections within the factory and as such requires a flexible, not to say philosophical attitude! “What we did last year was already close to the impossible, but we never gave up in the face of these new challenges,” reckons Piraccini. “The aero people pushed us very hard, but thanks to plenty of CAD time and work from good designers, what wasn’t possible yesterday started to become possible today and will be by tomorrow! We are pushing our designers to take a new view and think in a different way and we have also improved our internal communication with the aero people. In our team, we are all working for a common goal which is to succeed together.”

Jody Egginton Head of Vehicle Performance Group

The Vehicle Performance Group fulfils the role of providing a reality check for the design and engineering teams at Toro Rosso. The group links in with every department in the company, both in terms of providing support and in generating ideas.

“It provides a quantification of everything that is done to make the car quicker,” explains department head Jody Egginton. “If we take the start of the process for laying out the new car, there'll be certain concepts regarding suspension layout and the usual aero work, but from a concept stage onwards, there are questions to be asked regarding what might or might not be suitable for inclusion in the new car,” says Egginton. “For example, if a specific packaging requirement leads to a particular suspension layout, then from a kinematic perspective and also a stiffness and compliance perspective, Vehicle Performance will be able to provide a view on what they think the pros and cons of it are. So at every point when the car is being laid out, we’re there to say, ‘yes, okay, this looks like a good direction to go in,” or “this is the limitation of this direction.”

The department also generates ideas of its own relating to the design process on the aero and mechanical side. “For example, when it comes to laying out the suspension, there are a lot of questions regarding what amount of adjustment we want in the system, what stiffness is required and what range of bars and springs will be needed to ensure you design a car with the correct adjustment window,” says Egginton. When it comes to designing a new car, the Vehicle Performance Group is there to mediate between the different requirements of the aerodynamics department and the drawing office. “We all have an input and a decision to make and ultimately, what pops out on the other side is the best of a compromise, even if nobody likes compromising!”

Although the work inevitably intensifies in the months leading up to the launch of a new car, Egginton believes that the way a Formula 1 car develops has changed in recent years. “Toro

Rosso developed the STR9 quite late into last year, so a lot of that learning carries over to the new car, the STR10. The new regulations have led to an aggressive development programme and in my opinion, development is not cyclical or seasonal anymore. Everyone is trying to bring as much performance to the car as quickly as they can.”

One specific area that has come under scrutiny for 2015 relates to the tyres. “There’s been a big push in this area,” confirms Egginton. “Pirelli has made a change to the tyres for 2015, predominantly on the rears and we’ve had to react to that and provide data to ensure that the car is configured to get the best from these tyres. Over the winter we have also worked on improving our simulation tools and methodologies and processes, so that we can do a more complete job in the future, reacting more quickly, in order to bring more performance to the car.”

Brendan Gilhome Head of Aerodynamics

Once the brouhaha over the new power units died down last year, it became clear that one important factor in the Formula 1 package had not changed, namely the fact that a car’s aerodynamics was still where most of the performance could be found. Hence the work of our Aerodynamics department, headed up by Brendan Gilhome at our wind tunnel in Bicester, UK, is hugely important when it comes to shaping a new car.

“We still have some of our aerodynamics people working in Faenza and the plan is to align them more with the design office over there, having them all in the one area, once our new design office building is complete,” says Gilhome. “While in Bicester, we've just moved into a new office next to the wind tunnel, taking over a huge single-level space that brings together the aerodynamicists, model shop, production, the wind tunnel group, aero- performance and model design. So we have capacity for the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) aerodynamicists and the experimental aerodynamicists to sit in an open-plan office opposite the wind tunnel and that has definitely helped improve our communication and development rate. Hopefully we reap some benefits of centralising the aero performance side of things under one roof.”

If there’s anything harder than assembling a competitive F1 car, it’s assembling a competitive F1 team. At Toro Rosso, the need to deal with the very complex new technical regulations coincided with a major expansion of the team’s infrastructure and personnel. “Over the past 18 to 24 months, the aero department as well as the rest of Toro Rosso has gone through quite a rapid expansion and trying to balance that with the introduction of new regulations has been a bit of a challenge, that's for sure,” admits Gilhome. “However we’re definitely in better shape with a stronger workforce, with over 100 people now in the aero department, so I see no reason why we can't challenge some of the teams in front of us. From my point of view, everything is improving each day, not just our experience and understanding of these regulations, but also our tools, methodology, focus is improving daily, so I expect to see signs of that progress with STR10.”

As to specific areas that have had to change for 2015, Gilhome singles out the nose of the car, which now has to be much lower than last year. “We had quite a high nose relative to what is allowable with the 2015 regulations so we've had to put quite a bit of effort into accommodating the new nose regulations which has changed the concept at the front of our car,” confirms Gilhome, whose aero team has been pushing our design office hard. “We have asked the design office for more extreme shapes and surfaces which they have had to grapple with and to innovate solutions for, while they had to cope with a whole new engine and installation. The aerodynamics department puts pressure on the design office to achieve concepts that aren't necessarily what they themselves would choose from a weight or reliability point of view! Now, we’re more confident in terms of our process of how we approach the aerodynamic development of the car and that includes cooling.”

For much of last season, the Toro Rosso technical team had to play catch-up after a difficult winter, but that’s not expected to be the case this year, however, all teams face further challenges on the development front. “Next year there are further restrictions on testing and essentially we will have 20% less wind tunnel time and CFD computational capacity,” explains our aero chief. “However, we’re refining our tools and processes which will help us deal with the additional stresses of these restrictions.”

Phil Charles Chief Race Engineer

Phil Charles is our Chief Race Engineer, which means he runs the technical operations at the race track, combining the need to get the best out of the TR10 for qualifying and the race, with testing development parts during Friday’s free practice. The limited amount of track time over a race weekend means Charles is concerned with the practicalities of getting the job done.

“This year, we are excited as it feels like we have conquered a lot of the difficulties we had in 2014 with the power unit change and the upheaval it brought,” he says. “By the end of last year, we were able to change power units very quickly and we had got on top of all the installation difficulties, as well as having a better understanding of how the car goes together. In terms of procedures and operations at the race track, everything will be much quicker this year.”

For much of last year, the team had to deal with the fallout from an extremely problematic winter test period. “The 2014 car eventually turned out to be competitive, despite a difficult pre-season, so it can only be better this time,” reckons Charles. “We will get through a lot more of our winter test programme this year and looking at the agenda for Jerez and the two visits to Barcelona, we have been much more optimistic about what we can achieve.” Given Scuderia Toro Rosso’s remit to act as a “finishing school” for the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme, our engineers have an additional task, namely introducing rookies to the world of Formula 1 and this year that applies to both our drivers. “We have run both our new drivers on the simulator since the end of last season,” confirms Charles. “Honestly, I think we can be very excited about them: Verstappen appears to be hugely fast, while having a lot to learn. I’m looking forward to seeing how he develops, after doing a very good job in the simulator. He provided really detailed feedback on the car when he drove for us in FP1 at the final races of last year. Max has broken our record for the number of runs he has done on the simulator, with a very high concentration level. We now need to give both our drivers as many long runs as possible, which will condition our testing pre-season as we teach them

what they cannot learn on the simulator, mainly understanding tyre behaviour over a long run. Pirelli has produced a new rear construction, the Supersoft compound is different and there’s a new Intermediate compound. We won’t have hot weather pre-season testing this year so that’s another challenge, even if we tried the new tyres a bit at Abu Dhabi after the final round.”

Charles is confident our drivers will learn quickly. “The type of driver is very important, some drive with their bum some with their brain. Carlos and Max do engage their brain and seem to have a capacity to think about what is happening, on top of actually driving. They seem to have the right raw material. We have just gone through the same thing with Daniil (Kvyat) and so we understand the learning curve, which is very well detailed, so we hope we can take the next two through that learning curve a bit quicker, as we are more familiar with what is required.”

Graham Watson Team Manager

We have a new Team Manager this year, although Graham Watson is not new to the team, having joined in September 2014. A vital element of the Team Manager’s role is knowing the F1 rule book inside out and here, Watson outlines a few changes to the Sporting Regulations that will affect life in the garage at the race tracks. “Operationally, we have lost some work time due to stricter curfews, so that on Thursdays we must be out of the track by 10 pm instead of 11 and on Fridays work must end at 1am instead of 2,” says the New Zealander. “Generally that’s not too much of a worry, although it could have an impact in the early part of the season, when the cars are new and you can encounter a few more problems than later in the year.”

There are changes to the number of personnel too. “We're no longer allowed to have any ad hoc pases for staff,” explains Watson. “Up until now, we were allowed to have 60 operational staff and up to 10 single ad hoc personnel through the year. “Ad hocs” have all been removed now so we can only take the 60 operational staff to an event and if we need to swap someone in and out then someone has to stay at home, which will need careful planning.”

After having to deal with the massive 2014 rule change, Watson expects a more straightforward time in the garage this year. “Operationally we should be in a better place in 2015 because the technology is now a year old and we won't make any substantial changes from what we have done previously,” he maintains. “We learned some valuable lessons last year, which means we now know enough to not be scared of the technology.”

CAR TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION (STR10)

Official car name: STR10 Engine: F1-2015 Energy Recovery Systems: Renault Sport F1-2015 Chassis material: Composite monocoque structure Front suspension: Upper and lower carbon wishbones, pushrod, torsion bar springs, central damper and Anti roll bars, Penske dampers Rear suspension: Upper and lower carbon wishbones, pullrod, torsion bar springs, central damper and anti-roll bars, Penske dampers Assisted Steering Rack: Scuderia Toro Rosso Bellhousing: Carbon fibre composite Gearbox Maincase: Scuderia Toro Rosso, Aluminium alloy Gears: Eight-speed sequential - hydraulically operated Supplied by Red Bull Technology Hydraulic system: Red Bull Technology Clutch: AP Racing Exhaust: Scuderia Toro Rosso, Inconel, with turbo heatshield Calipers: Pads and discs: Brembo Brake By Wire: Scuderia Toro Rosso Cooling system (radiators, heat exchangers, intercoolers): Scuderia Toro Rosso. Cockpit instrumentation: Scuderia Toro Rosso Steering wheel: Scuderia Toro Rosso Driver's seat: Carbon fibre construction, moulded to driver’s shape Seat belts: OMP/Sabelt Pedals: Scuderia Toro Rosso Extinguisher system: Scuderia Toro Rosso/FEV Wheels: Apptech, Magnesium alloy Tyres: Pirelli Fuel system: ATL tank with Scuderia Toro Rosso internals Bodywork material: Carbon fibre composite Overall weight: 702 kg (including driver and camera)

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