- Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso has renewed confidence in Renault
Toro Rosso has taken encouragement from the work engine supplier Renault has achieved over the winter and believes it will be stronger than last year.
At the first test last year, all the Renault teams completed very limited mileage as the French manufacturer struggled to get its new power unit up and running. However, team principal Franz Tost said the gains will still be relative compared to what rivals Ferrari, Mercedes and Honda come up with.
"Renault has done a step forward without any doubt," he said. "But to do a step forward is one question, but it depends where are the other [manufactures]. Mercedes will have gone forward and we must wait and I think it will take two or three races until we get a clear picture. I'm quite positive about the work from Renault because, for example, on Wednesday we were the first team out on track at a filming day and we did 96km without any problem. This was a big step forward and I hope that we can do a good test here and that the power unit is reliable. We trust in the work of Renault but the rest we will see."
Technical director James Key believes the team will be much better off now Renault is only supplying Toro Rosso and its senior team Red Bull.
"Renault has definitely made some steps and are certainly in a much better shape now than they were last year, but also in terms of the way its organised and the direction the are taking," he said. "Renault had a tough year last year and recovered extremely well and worked very hard over the winter. In this event we have the opportunity to develop during the season which opens up all sorts of opportunities, but of course that is open to everyone.
"In terms of the way we install the engine and how we work, the good thing now with Renault is that there are two customers rather than four and the variability they had before was part of the problem because they had four different solutions for each problem rather than just one or two. That disappears with two teams and obviously we have a link with Red Bull so we can work together with them. It's a Renault installation and both teams have adopted it, so it works pretty well."
Key said the team was starting testing with the similar cooling requirements to last year, but with the aim of tightening the packaging of the car before the first race.
"We've got roughly the same area, but there are a few improvements from Renault for sure. We are starting off with the same area but we will probably revise before Melbourne once we're happy. We are starting conservative but we can take a little bit out."
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