F109 Countdown: Toro Rosso

In a slight change from the norm, I am running the next team preview early. The main reason for which is that the FIA are planning to vote on a potential new points system (yah!) and don’t fancy being kyboshed with doing two articles later.

Toro Rosso:
2008 Results
Best Finish: 1st (Sebastian Vettel at the Italian Grand Prix)
Points Scored: 39
Championship Position: 6th
2009 Drivers: Sébastien Bourdais & Sebastian Buemi

Toro Rosso defied all expectations last year. This is the Red Bull junior team. It was supposed to show flashes of brilliance, but at the end of the day the main Red Bull squad was supposed to be top dog. It’s like a sibling rivalry. No matter what happened, the older sibling is usually expected to come out on top.

The team started last year with a hybrid of their older car, choosing to delay the introduction of their 2008 challenger. Usually, this is a bad sign, leaving a team lagging in the development race. Once again, Toro Rosso bucked the trend. The STR3 in the capable of hands of Vettel scored points regularly. It wasn’t even a case of just there by circumstance. It was there on raw speed.

And to think, this was the team that this time last year, was up for sale. Since then, the team has publically been taken off the market, although Red Bull owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, is willing to listen to the right offer. After the performance of the team last year, I’m surprised that more elements of the Toro Rosso team weren’t moved over to the main Red Bull squad to improve it.

Can they produce the same last year? That is going to be a tough one. Despite sharing common traits with the Red Bull car design, their challenger was launched a month later. Running with a hybrid car is all fine and dandy, but you don’t pick up the same data as with the actual car. I don’t think it was an ideal situation to leave Bourdais hanging as long as they did as well.

The former Champ Car champion is given another chance to impress this season. All in all, it was a wise decision. I always feel a team can benefit from sort of continuity on the driver front. His end of season performances merited another shot. Granted, he only scored points in one of them, but he put that car in the last session of qualifying the same as Vettel.

It makes this season make or break for the Frenchman. He has to turn promising speed into consistent points. I feel he has a better chance than his would-be replacement, Takuma Sato. The Japanese drive has shown flashes of speed in the past. Unfortunately, he also brings flashes of head pains to mechanics that have to repair the car.

The team continue their adoration of anyone with the name ‘Sebastian’ with replacing Vettel with GP2 series driver Buemi. The Swiss driver finished sixth last year, but won two races. Prior to Christmas, he headed the field in testing, although as I have said many times before, I don’t put much stock in times until we get to the real racing.

What would concern me about him is that he did finish sixth in GP2. There were five other drivers ahead of him, none which will be on the Formula One grid this year for varying circumstances. It definitely makes me wonder if he will make the grade.

I envisage a tough year for the team. I doubt they will reach the highs of last year. If they level out and find consistency which brings them points, it will be a good result for the team that used to spend all their time rooted to the rear of the field.