Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost says that the squad is in the best situation it's ever been in.
The team has been boosted by its new works team status with Honda, and achieved a breakthrough fourth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix this month.
“Toro Rosso is in the best situation we have ever been," said Tost. "We are now much more involved in the complete design process regarding the car.
"How to fit in the power unit, how to design the cooling system, the exhaust system, where to put the electric boxes and so on,” he explained.
“I think, especially for next year, this will be a big advantage from the complete car design point of view.”
Toro Rosso might even be blazing a trail for the senior Red Bull Racing team, which is out of contract with Renault at the end of 2018.
If Toro Rosso's collaboration with Honda proves a success, Red Bull might take the plunge next season.
However, despite success in Bahrain, the case is not yet fully proven. Toro Rosso emerged from Australia and China without any points, and both Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley slumped badly in Shanghai after colliding mid-race.
“We didn't have the pace compared to our main competitors," Gasly admitted after the Chinese Grand Prix. "[It was] a tough, tough weekend overall.
“We didn't have the pace compared to our main competitors," he continued. “We need to understand why we lost so much performance in just a week, so we have a lot of things to analyse."
Gasly added that trying a different set-up last weekend clearly hadn't been the right way to go.
"At least we know it," he commented. "But I think we need to go more in details and a bit more deeply.
"The balance clearly wasn't as good as it used to be," he added. "It's more maybe the track itself didn't suit with the long corners, long traction [runs].
“That is our goal," he said. "To understand why we were [so far off the pace] from one weekend to the next."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
