By Craig Hinton
February 2 2016

It will be interesting to see how close Toro Rosso are to the Red Bull team in 2016, Welcome back guys and girls looking forward to the first race in Albert Park.

Ahead of pre-season testing, Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen says he expects his 2016 car to be around a second a lap faster than last year’s.

Verstappen, who made his debut with the Toro Rosso team at the start of last season, caught the attention of the paddock with two P4 finishes and some gutsy drives over the course of the season. At some points, the STR10 looked more competitive than the main Red Bull team’s RB11.

One of the early season headlines in 2015 was the hypothesis that the James Key-penned Toro Rosso was actually possibly the second best chassis on the grid, only let down by a lack of power from its Renault engine. While Red Bull will continue with Renault power in the guise of TAG-Heuer branding for 2016, Toro Rosso have switched to Ferrari power. Ferrari’s power unit appeared to be roughly on par with the pace-setting Mercedes’ by the end of the season, boding well for a competitive year for Toro Rosso.

Speaking to De Telegraaf, Verstappen explained that he expects his new Ferrari powered car to be around a second quicker than the STR10, due to chassis improvements and the engine change: “It seems that we are eight tenths to one second faster than last year. That’s a lot. It looks positive for us. We probably will make a bigger step than the teams that are simply switching to a new 2016 engine.”

The Italian team have run Ferrari power before, and claimed their sole victory in F1 using the Scuderia’s engine at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel.

Toro Rosso are one of the few teams left to announce their launch plans for this year’s car, although history suggests a pit-lane reveal at the start of the first day of testing. Verstappen will drive alongside Spaniard Carlos Sainz for the second consecutive year.

Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 2016-02-01

Max Verstappen expecting Toro Rosso to find ‘a second a lap’

Discussion started by Racing Bulls , 02/02/2016 02:25

Racing Bulls
02/02/2016 02:25

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phatjack
04/02/2016 17:52

It's being said on various boards the new Renault Engine/MGU Packs about 875HP.

Ferrari at the start of the 2015 season was at about 800HP.

"When you talk, you are repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new." - Dalai Lama

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SydneyF1Fan
04/02/2016 21:44

Welcome back all - thanks for getting the board out of hibernation toptoy and Whitey!

Looking forward to seeing how Max goes this year, now that he knows the tracks and has a decent donk. He was a revelation last year.

I hope the Renault donk has improved too.

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