February 1, 2010 - At five past nine on a cool and sunny Monday morning at the Valencia circuit, Scuderia Toro Rosso's 2010 car, the STR 5 was wheeled into pit lane for its first ever photo call in front of around 60 photographers. Many of Alguersuari's Spanish fans were also at hand to witness the unveiling.
The STR5 has been designed and built to conform to the technical regulations which apply this year. Although the changes are not as significant as those introduced twelve months ago, they are important enough to have had a major impact on the philosophy of the car.
Possibly the biggest difference stems from the fact that the 2010 car has been designed to make the most of running a double diffuser, whereas in 2009, the car had to be adapted mid-season to make use of this device. Another unusual feature of the new rules is that the introduction of a narrower front tyre was originally conceived as part of a move to facilitate overtaking, in conjunction with the KERS system, which all teams have actually agreed to leave on the shelf this season.
Understanding how the new tyres work – the rears also feature a different construction – will be one of the main tasks undertaken in February testing.
Also significant in defining the shape of the car is the ban on refuelling, which requires a much larger fuel cell. This has led to STR5 being longer than its predecessor. Scuderia Toro Rosso has undergone a recent and rapid expansion of its design team and its wind tunnel in Bicester is also a relatively new tool. These two factors mean the overall design of STR5 could be seen as conservative, given that getting a new workforce to operate as a team and validating and learning to trust wind tunnel data is not the work of a moment. The extra fuel load has not just impacted on the shape of the car, as the additional weight has meant a reappraisal of the suspension and braking, as well as other areas. For the fourth consecutive year, the Toro is powered by the Cavallino, continuing the use of the Ferrari 056 V8 engine. With engine development strictly limited, winter work on the V8 has focussed on reliability and fuel consumption, the latter particularly significant this year, with the refuelling ban.
Going It Alone in 2010
2010 is a landmark year for Scuderia Toro Rosso as it detaches itself from Red Bull Technology and, in accordance with new F1 rules, has to do all its own car design and build work in-house.
In recent years, more and more production had been undertaken at the team’s Faenza facility, but now we really have to go it alone.
Scuderia Toro Rosso made its F1 debut in 2006, when Red Bull’s motives in acquiring a second team were prompted by the need to find cockpits for the most talented of the rookie drivers it had nurtured in its Young Driver Programme. Sebastian Vettel demonstrated the effectiveness of the young driver idea, by securing the team’s first win in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix and Scuderia Toro Rosso continues to fill the role of training camp, fielding the two youngest drivers on the grid, Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari.
Continuity is important in F1 and we still have Franz Tost at the helm and Giorgio Ascanelli heading the technical operation. With a longer than usual nineteen race season ahead, the team has reached its first target in having the new car ready for the first of the fifteen days of winter testing, which will be the key to ensuring that the car, the team and drivers are as well prepared as possible for the first round in Bahrain.
