--- title: "2015 Season Review – Toro Rosso" canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2015/12/15/2015-season-review-toro-rosso/" type: "post" language: "en-GB" author: "Kyran Gibbons" section: "F1 News" published: "2015-12-15T12:50:29Z" modified: "2015-12-15T12:50:29Z" --- # 2015 Season Review – Toro Rosso As the proving ground for Red Bull’s most promising talents, Toro Rosso’s drivers invariably come under intense scrutiny. Both Carlos Sainz Jr and Max Verstappen demonstrated just why they deserved a chance in the sport this season, with two of the most impressive rookie campaigns that the Red Bull programme has ever seen. Their stunning seasons came despite question marks concerning their appointments, with the highly rated Jean-Eric Vergne making way at the team and Antonio Felix Da Costa once again being overlooked. While being reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion ensured Sainz’s CV justified his debut, 17-year-old Max Verstappen was always going to be one of 2015’s headlines. After just one year of car racing, the Dutchman’s inexperience led to many commentators even suggesting that his rapid rise to F1 could prove dangerous – both literally, and in the context of reaching his potential. Sainz and Verstappen have been the revelations of 2015, with the latter already being tipped as the next Senna or Schumacher. However, Toro Rosso’s season should not only be remembered for the talent behind the wheel, with the STR10 frequently threatening Red Bull, as the technical team produced one of Faenza’s best ever machines. ![Clive Mason/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2015/12/4971357281.jpg) When the team’s 2015 challenger was first unveiled at the end of January, it turned heads, setting the tone for the year to come. The STR10 was seemingly a departure from the Toro Rosso technical philosophy of old, with an aggressive approach to aerodynamic design replacing the conservative nature of old, as evidenced by smaller air intakes and tighter rear packaging. This was the first Toro Rosso in which Technical Director James Key had overseen the entire development process. His influence was clearly positive, as Sainz and Verstappen were provided well-balanced machinery which surely made their first foray into the F1 world much easier than it otherwise could have been. Points came on debut in Melbourne for Sainz, while Verstappen was made to wait until Malaysia to become F1’s youngest points-scorer, after his opportunity in the curtain-raiser was robbed by unreliability – an occurrence which unfortunately became a trend of Toro Rosso’s season. The STR10 may have been quick, but it was ultimately let down by poor reliability over the course of the campaign, which severely hindered the team’s chance of usurping Lotus in the constructors race. A string of four consecutive retirements for Carlos Sainz between Austria and Belgium served to highlight the fragility of the car. In the first 10 rounds of 2015, Toro Rosso’s only made it to the chequered flag on 11 of a possible 20 occasions, effectively ruling them out of contention for the fifth place that they had targeted in the constructors standings instantaneously. ![Peter Fox/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2015/12/469449084.jpg) While the STR10 was running, the drivers were always busy extracting the maximum performance, demonstrating sensational race craft along the way. Verstappen provided many of the most breathtaking overtaking maneuvers of the year, while Sainz’s drive from the back of the grid in Russia after spending Saturday afternoon in hospital following a frightening FP3 crash, was one of the most impressive standalone performances of 2015. It rather summed up the Spaniard’s year that his charge in Sochi was prematurely halted by brake failure. Had his STR10 reached the chequered flag, fifth place was a possibility, given Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen’s dramatic last lap collision which would have likely seen him climb an extra two places. His similarly costly car failures in Hungary and Belgium meant that his final points tally proved to be an unfair reflection on his season overall. 2016 will mark the difficult ‘second album’ for Verstappen and Sainz, who after their stunning debut year’s, will have the weight of expectation to contend with. What could complicate matters further, is that the team will run 2015 Ferrari engines next year. Potentially a hindrance to overall car performance, with the scale determined by the rate of engine development this winter. The team may call upon talent behind the wheel to compensate for a performance deficit, which will be a stern test for the pair. ![Mark Thompson/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2015/12/498818846.jpg) **Max Verstappen – 49 points (12th in the drivers’ standings)** One of the most impressive rookies the sport has seen, Verstappen answered the questions posed by his many critics in emphatic fashion. His overtake around the outside of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr at the daunting Blanchimont at Spa was one of several awe-inspiring moves throughout the season. His courage was complemented by what seemed to be instinctive car control. In a season of highlights, Verstappen’s accident with Romain Grosjean at Monaco provided a notable low point. However, he was unperturbed by what was his first crash and appeared to grow in stature as a result. His response to criticisms following the incident, particularly in the Drivers’ Press Conference, highlighted his supreme confidence which was unrelenting all year long. In response to [Felipe Massa’s challenge](https://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/headlines/2015/6/fia-thursday-press-conference---canada.html), he declared “I’m focusing on Canada right now and maybe you should review the race from last year and see what happened there.” **Carlos Sainz Jr – 18 points (15th in the drivers’ standings)** Having more experience than his teammate and suffering at the hands of unreliability more often may have detracted from Sainz’s season, but the Spaniard’s maiden year in F1 was still sublime. He out-qualified Verstappen over the course of the season 10-9, with his Q3 appearance at the expense of his opposite number in Abu Dhabi proving the deciding result. He was just as consistent as Verstappen on race day and while his overtaking was understated compared with that of the Dutchman, his charges through the pack in Russia and the US, demonstrated that he can be just as clinical in wheel-to-wheel combat. It will be intriguing to see how he stacks up against Verstappen in year two at Toro Rosso.