Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost is setting a lofty goal of fourth in the constructors’ championship for his team in their first season with Honda, after confirming the new STR13 will be revealed in Barcelona next month.
The junior Red Bull team agreed to take on the Japanese manufacturer after McLaren’s patience finally ran out following three difficult years and the progress made in the second half of 2017 is giving both Austrian-backed outfits reason for optimism.
With hopes Honda could even jump Renault and become the third best power unit on the grid, the main concern will be reliability but should it come together, Tost sees no reason to lower expectations.
“It’s difficult,” he acknowledged talking to Racer. “We must be within the top five once more, it’s the same story as in 2017.
“The first three positions are gone, forget it, this is another league but then from position four onwards, everything is possible because Force India is running with a similar budget to us, Williams as well.”
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The battle for ‘best of the rest’ is setting up to be one of the closest ever despite Force India comfortably taking fourth by over 100 points last year. Two sleeping giants are widely expected to move up just behind the big three, but the Toro Rosso chief doesn’t think they will be out of reach.
“I expect that McLaren will become quite competitive as well and Renault will make a step forwards, but it means from fourth position onwards everything is possible.” Tost reiterated. “Once more we have to build a good car, a competitive car, and we have the ingredients together to fight for a successful position.”
The Italian team retains the pairing which ended last season, with Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, though neither driver would score a point in the troubled final races and they remain the least experienced line-up on the grid.
Regardless the new car will be launched on the first morning of pre-season testing in the Barcelona pit-lane on February 26th.
