Toro Rosso new F1 car for 2019 STR14 is the first car in the new hybrid turbo era that will share a large number of parts with Red Bull which will also use Honda power units this year – will it help the team to move up from the ninth place finish in F1 2018?
Using the same power unit as Red Bull enabled Toro Rosso to share the list of parts that teams do not need to make themselves, such as gearboxes, rear suspension and hydraulics, similiar to Haas – Ferrari model, which will cut costs for the parent company.
The team finished 2018 F1 championship in ninth place, ahead of the fallen giant Williams, and this year they want to use increased technical cooperation with Red Bull to focus on performance details.
“The goal is always to be better in order to compete at the highest level and this winter we have been working intensively to bring a few organizational changes that should overcome some of the problems we have had in the past,” said team principal Franz Tost.
“We have analyzed internal procedures to optimize our strengths and minimize weaknesses.”
“Compared to the other teams, Toro Rosso has less people, but the synergy with Red Bull Technology with parts that are not on the list will leave us more time to focus on the details. Focusing on details makes the difference and brings more performance. ”
Nose and front wing
The biggest change on this year’s F1 cars is their front wing which is 20 cm wider and has a maximum five elements. Complex cascade structures at its edges for pushing the airflow to the outside of the front wheels are no longer allowed.
Toro Rosso front wing looks pretty simple and has to be one of the first development iterations, as will be the case at other newly presented cars as the teams want to hide as much as possible for as long as possible.
The central, 50 cm wide neutral section is the same as last year (red) where are attached first two elements of the front wing that have the largest surface and the lowest angle of attack.
The front wing now has only two horizontal fences beneath each side of the front wing (orange on the picture bellow) and the endplates are very simple as slits and flicks are no longer allowed by the rules.
The outer side of the endplates features now common narrow tunnels at the bottom (pink in the picture bellow) that stretch almost for the entire depth of the front wing, which is the only allowed mechanism for creating a vortex before the outside edge of the front wheel.
Front wing, unlike the front wing on Haas VF-19, does not have a thermal camera on a small horizontal extension or stabilizing elements for required strength, which further confirms that this is a very basic front wing specification.
Nose is very similar to last year’s Toro Rosso STR13 as they, perhaps surprisingly, didn’t follow Red Bull’s hollow nose route which started in 2017.
Front wing pillars got the third slit (turquoise), as they had two slots on each side in 2018, while the S-duct entry point and it exit are marked yellow.
Below the S-duct system exit there are triple curvy vanes hanging under the lower wishbone (purple) which take the airflow from the front wing and shape it to the requirements of the other aerodynamic elements behind the front wheels, all for a better and faster airflow under the car and around sidepods.
Front suspension and area behind the front wheels
Toro Rosso STR14 has conventional pushrod front suspension, but they have rejected the innovative solution from 2018 that Mercedes also used last year as the upper wishbones (marked orange) are now mounted at the top of the wheel. Last year, the upper wishbone was connected to a raised extension above the top of the front rim.
It is possible that the reason for this change is more intensive transfer technology from Red Bull so they decided to use a more similar front suspension design or the innovative solution didn’t work as expected.
S-duct system exit (yellow), as well as front brake ducts (blue) which now don’t have verious aerodynamic devices around them, can also be seen in the picture bellow.
Area behind the front wheels has the similar configuration as last year STR13 with a triple bargeboard (marked turquoise) with a curved element at the bottom (red) while mirrors have double aerodinamically shaped holders that help shaping the airflow around the cockpit.
Sidepod area
Toro Rosso has decided to follow Red Bull and Ferrari’s development path in this area as the Maranello team first started the trend of exceptionally highly positioned radiator inlets and highly positioned side crash structures in 2017 with their SF70H.
Red Bull followed the Ferrari trend last year with RB14 so it’s not a surprise that Toro Rosso has followed a similar route this year. Sidepod inlets are positioned at maximum height and very back to free up as much space as possible for the airflow and get less turbulent airflow into radiators.
The shape of the sidepod inlets (orange) is curved on the outer upper edge, as well as on the Red Bull RB14, and is located between two lateral horizontal structures (marked turquoise) which also have an aerodynamic function. Airflow can comfortably pass between the outer upper edge of the intake and the aerodynamically profiled safety structure, similar to the 2018 Ferrari SF71H, which also had several angled vertical fins in that area.
A simple vertical element (with a thin horizontal joint) attached to the entire structure is marked in pink and isn’t connected to any other element or floor which reminds of first McLaren solutions in this area in 2018. Expect to see more complex solutions in this area.
The next photo shows the contours of the sidepods (highlighted with yellow curves) which follow the Red Bull trend from 2018 and tapper down quite steeply already on the letter ‘B’ while the undercut is very prominent on both ‘l’s.
Red Bull decided to put more power unit components such as coolers above the engine in RB14 to have this distinctive steeply shaped sidepod and engine cover and Toro Rosso followed their example with STR14.
Engine cover
Toro Rosso engine cover is much larger in its upper part compared to the new Haas VF-19, which goes in line with 2018 Red Bull style power unit components integration with bulkier upper part.
The airbox above the driver’s head (orange in the photo bellow) is very similar to last year and has three parts – the central part brings fresh air into a 1.6-liter V6 engine while the lateral chambers cool the gearbox oil and the ERS coolers.
In the photo bellow you can see the rear suspension through the side airbox channels as a result of the incomplete configuration of the car in these photographs (without coolers).
Rear suspension and rear end
Toro Rosso has not released a proper rear end photograph, but some parts can be seen from a side photo such as details of the rear wing, diffuser and rear suspension.
The rear suspension is pullrod configuration, reintroduced in F1 by Red Bull in 2009, as in all 2018 F1 cars, and its geometry is similiar to last year’s Red Bull RB14.
The rear wing is 100 mm wider and 20 mm higher and its endplates can no longer be slotted and cut as last year, a trend that McLaren started in 2017.
However, the lower part of the endplates can still be slotted and the Toro Rosso divided that part into eight vertical sections to increase the effective span of the rear wing in that area.
The upper part of the endplate (marked orange) also has a small vertical slit in its lower part.
