Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost believes the pairing of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz is one of the strongest in the history of the team.

Red Bull's junior team has been used to give experience to young drivers in F1, with Sebastian Vettel the most successful driver to be produced by the system. Toro Rosso opted for an all-new rookie line-up of Verstappen and Sainz in 2015, with Daniil Kvyat having moved up to Red Bull and Jean-Eric Vergne dropped.

With Verstappen capping the first half of the season with fourth place in Hungary and Sainz having scored on four occasions, Tost says he has been impressed with the approach from both drivers.

"Both of our drivers have done a fantastic job and that is partly because of their commitment to Formula 1," Tost said. "They have a really positive attitude and Formula 1 is their life, which is clear from the fact they are in constant contact with their engineers, they spend a lot of time working on their physical condition.

"They are always asking questions and they have a strong work ethic. Formula 1 is their passion and that's the best route to success. I would say they are one of the most competitive pairings we have seen at Toro Rosso. Their learning curve is very steep."

Click here to find out the budgets available to each F1 team during the 2015 season

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Remembering McLaren co-founder Teddy Mayer

Legendary Formula 1 team boss Teddy Mayer passed away on this day in 2009 at…

2 hours ago

Stefano Domenicali lights the way to Milano Cortina 2026

This week, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali traded the sport’s paddock for a snow-dusted jog,…

3 hours ago

Leclerc slowly embracing ‘super interesting’ side of F1’s new cars

When Charles Leclerc first grappled with the early digital ghosts of the Ferrari SF-26 in…

4 hours ago

McLaren forced to ‘strip down’ MCL40 to chase fuel fault

After Lando Norris debuted McLaren’s new car on Wednesday in Barcelona, the baton was passed…

5 hours ago

No panic at Audi despite testing gremlins: ‘This is why we test’

The pristine asphalt of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has long been the ultimate truth-teller for…

6 hours ago

A first look at Aston Martin’s radical Newey-designed AMR26

Aston Martin finally revealed its 2026 challenger, the AMR26, on Thursday afternoon at the Circuit…

21 hours ago