Tost quells Toro Rosso fears
As the only team running a restricted V10 engine, and with a chassis too familiar to the Red Bull 2005 car, Scuderia Toro Rosso make their debut in Bahrain amid controversy and threats of protests.
But the 'junior' Red Bull team boss, Franz Tost, believes their rivals have no reason to complain or worry about the former Minardi outfit, and he talks about the team's competitiveness, the engine equivalency formula, the chassis ownership, and more.
Q: What are your feelings on the new season? Are you excited or nervous?
Franz Tost: "Nothing has changed in this way apart from having more work and more responsibility. That is it. At the end we will see."
Q: Has it surprised you that all winter, your rival teams have only been talking about your V10 engine and its performance?
Tost: "First of all, I don't believe that all of them have talked about us, because if this is the case then their winter time must have been too boring. At the same time - and I now talk from Toro Rosso's side - we have so much work to do, that I cannot think about what other teams are doing and which engine decision they will make.
"Therefore, I think there were two or three people who always talked about our engine, the V10. They talked to the press and they made a little bit of publicity, in a negative way, against us.
"But for me it is quite clear. The FIA regulations say that we, as a private team, can run a V10 engine. We have to run it with the 77mm air restrictor and with the 16,700rpm limit, and that is it so far. I cannot understand why some of them are so against this decision."
Q: Do you think it is not an equivalency formula at all? It is more a restriction on your performance?
Tost: "I don't know where they think our performance will be so good. During the tests, we were 1.0 to 1.5 seconds (per lap) behind the others, and we are 5-8km/h behind the others in terms of top speed, and therefore I don't know where they have got the information that we are faster and our package has such a good performance that we can do good results.
"I hope that they are right, but realistically in qualifying we are not able to be within the first ten because there are six works teams, with 12 cars, and apart from this we have Williams with two cars.
"There are other competitors with a really good package; therefore, I don't know how they can say Toro Rosso has such a good performance. I hope they are right because I would be very happy about this, to be honest."
Q: But it must be hard for you, the more you improve the car and go faster, the more your performance will be pulled back...
Tost: "Look, if we are legal and running within the FIA regulation, I cannot see a reason why they will hold us back. Why? It depends.
"If we were in the first position and running 10 seconds in front of Renault, then okay. But first, this will not be the case. And second, I could understand it then. They would say that this is not within the thoughts of the people who made the regulations. This I understand and would be 100 percent accepting from our side.
"But let's wait and see. Tomorrow we have the first free practice, Saturday qualifying, and Sunday the race, and then we will know more about everything.
"From the engine performance side, I am absolutely convinced that many, many of the V8 engines are in front, because during the winter time the manufacturers did a tremendous job - they made a big step forward and therefore I don't expect us to have such a great advantage over the other teams regarding engine power."
Q: But on that point, if it is an equivalency formula, it should not be something that changes regularly, because if you do improve your car, it would be anti-competitive to then restrict you?
Tost: "But who says that if we are within the first eight - which, once more, I do not believe we will be - that we will be restricted? Who says this?"
Q: Well, that is the question. The FIA has always said it will change instantly...
Tost: "Yes, Max Mosley always said that if he sees that the V10 engine has an advantage over the V8, and if they made the wrong type of regulation, then he would change it, and he would change it immediately, from hour to hour. We know this. It is quite fair. And the rest, we will see.
"But to be honest I cannot see an advantage up to now. All the calculations that Cosworth have done so far are correct. And the measurements and dyno tests that some other manufacturers did were with different restrictors - for example, it is important how you fit in the restrictor into the airbox.
"If it is 10mm with a 90-degree angle or if you have a little bit of radius in there, then immediately you have the Venturi Effect and then immediately you have 20-30 percent more horsepower.
"And that is clear. It means that first the people who talk against the V10, they must know how they have measured it. I don't know. I only know this from some manufacturers, that they tried a right angle, and it is wrong. If you have a radius in there, it is wrong and you have another output from the engine. That is all I can say and let's wait and see."
Q: How will the FIA establish whether a V10 is an advantage?
Tost: "They will see it. They will see it in the speeds and where we are placed. They will see how good our performance is. For people at the FIA, it is very easy to police where we are because they have all the data and they can see where we are.
"They can see if we have an advantage from the engine side or from the chassis side, or the driver's side, wherever. It is very easy to police and control everything. They have all the data. If they want, they know everything."
Q: If you were only quicker than Midland and Super Aguri it wouldn't be a problem, but if you were quicker than Williams, Toyota or Red Bull it would...
Tost: "No, I don't see this. Because it depends. Normally Red Bull is in front of us, from car performance and qualifying. And if, for example, they did not finish a race - or any competitors for that matter - because of reliability problems, then you cannot punish us on the grounds that we are in front of them due to the V10. That would be ridiculous.
"It depends on the circumstance. If we are running in front of a manufacturer who does not have any problems, either with tyres or reliability or anything else, then we have to think about it. But this will not happen. I cannot believe it.
"We are a young team, we nearly have inexperienced drivers, last year Tonio [Liuzzi] did four races, and Scott Speed is completely new, Neel Jani is new in F1, wherefrom they should immediately get the performance level to be in front of the others... I think this is for some people an excuse to talk about something because they have themselves not done a good enough job."
Q: There have been some other comments about the legality of your car. What can you say about that?
Tost: "I don't know exactly what they are claiming. The fact is that Scuderia Toro Rosso is the owner of the (intellectual) property rights of the RB1 as well as of the STR1. That means from the regulation side we could have run the RB1, because we are the owner of the property rights, but we did not do this.
"We improved this car from the aero side a little bit, and some other improvements where we expect a better performance, and that is it. I don't know what is wrong from this side. It is something that is within the regulations, so I don't understand what they are claiming."
Q: Do you think some other teams will protest you?
Tost: "I don't know. I always hear that Midland will protest, but I don't know what they will protest - the chassis or the engine. You know, as far as I can say, we did everything to be within the regulations, and the FIA has the regulation that we respect. And I don't know what they (Midland) are against, and then I don't know what the scrutineers or the stewards will decide."
Q: Ultimately, isn't it better that your rivals are worried about you than if they were not?
Tost: "Yeah, it is good. On one side it is okay, because let me say it is better if they talk about you than if they don't, and we have to earn that.
"But I would prefer if they talked that we are a really good team and they liked us. Positive criticism is always better than negative criticism, and we should not start an F1 season from the beginning talking about protests and those kind of things. That is a negative taste for me. I would not like to do this.
"I would never start an F1 season talking in the press that I would protest against this team or that team. For me, that is not good."
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