Toro Rosso - 7.5/10
Where would F1 be without Toro Rosso? Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat all owe their respective rises to top teams to Red Bull’s junior outfit, and this year it produced a car capable of challenging the big boys early on. In turn, it led to some thrilling performances from its exciting young driver line-up.
While hit by the same reliability issues as Red Bull - attributed to the Renault power unit - Toro Rosso started the season with a strong car aerodynamically, highlighted by Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen qualifying fifth and sixth respectively in Spain. In race trim the car was often a little slower and tyre wear a concern, but points were still picked up on a fairly regular basis.
Verstappen shone with two fourth places but reliability became a major issue in the middle of the season as Sainz retired from four races in a row. With two rookie drivers there were always going to be mistakes too, and inconsistency is naturally something that the team faced as a result. However, Toro Rosso still pushed Lotus until the final race in the battle for sixth in the constructors’ and surely would have prevailed given a more reliable car.
