Toro Rosso to run Ferrari Power Next Year?

[Paul Jeffrey]

Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jnr somewhat let the cat out of the bag in Abu Dhabi when he was quoted as saying his Toro Rosso team will be utilizing Ferrari power in 2016.

"On the one hand it is a relief that this is our last race with Renault," speaking to Spanish broadcaster Movistar "I believe we will have more power with Ferrari next year, and also better reliability. The problem for Renault was in the factory," Sainz added, "...they [Renault] just couldn’t make it work but it is the engineers here in the paddock who take the blame when in fact they are only trying to maximise what they have."​

With no announcement from the team forthcoming, the Spanish driver was keen to backtrack on his previous comments when tackled on the subject later in the day,

"I did not say Ferrari. I did not mention that word. I only said that I hope to get a more powerful engine in the coming year,".​

Conventional wisdom in the paddock was for Toro Rosso to follow sister team Red Bull Racing and use unbranded Renault power next season, but this latest revelation will add an interesting talking point going into the final race of the year.

It is expected that the deal with Ferrari will be for 2015-spec engines and not the new 2016 units.

 

[Deleted member 161052]

Well why can't Toro Rosso be with the 2016 engines?

 

[April Dillon]

Well why can't Toro Rosso be with the 2016 engines?

Probably because Red Bull already asked Ferrari about getting engines next year, and the only thing Ferrari offered was 2015 engines instead of the new 2016 engines. It seems to be the only thing they're prepared to supply next season to anyone they aren't already supplying.

 

[Mark Aalberts]

In fact its a logistical problem explained by Ferrari earlier on in the season, cant remember exactly when it was. They where never going to supply both RBR and STR since it was to short notice to change the logistical part to supply 2 extra teams. Although maybe this was taken as a excuse to not supply RBR. Ferrari is not stupid nor is Mercedes. They know perfectly that RBR with a Ferrari or Mercedes engine has the ability to create a car that could threat their own works teams.

As far as i know the contracts are actually ready to be signed for STR to get 2015 Ferrari engines, which could be upgraded to 2016 engines mid season next year. However the decision depends on the outcome of the Renault/unbranded engine deal between Renault and RB. I think this will determine whether STR will drive with Ferrari or with the rebadged Renault engines next year. The Ferrari 2015 for STR is more like a backup plan but I think RB prefers to keep them on the same engines because that's a path they wanted to go when they put STR on Renault engines 2 years ago.

Its a rather complicated story, from what I understand Renault only wants to supply 2 teams instead of 3 teams next year. I don't know exactly what the precise reason is behind this, perhaps Renault is not having the facility to supply 3 teams. However RB prefers to have both teams with the same drivetrain for various reasons so no idea what is going to happen there.

However looking at the amount of problems Renault has had, also a lot that was never in the news this year for example they had 1 time failing spark plugs this year,.. few races ago Carlos had a failing bobine. In Silverstone Max was having a failing waste gate (valve) giving a lot of problems. I mean the most simplistic parts failed on them that already says something. Reliability was a big issue this year for Renault, let alone the 80hp they are short on the Mercs with mainly power output on top speed being a big problem that never in a million year they will get solved. They took a 11 token upgrade to Brazil and the GPS data showed that the engine was actually worse then without the update.

Being a big Max fan I really hope they will get access of 2015 Ferrari engines for STR, they could be a big surprise next year.