The Toro Rosso STR9 unveiled

Two years in the making, the STR9 was revealed today at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in southern Spain. The drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat whipped the sheets off Scuderia Toro Rosso’s challenger for the 2014 Formula 1 World Championship in the Jerez pit lane, at an event organised by long time sponsor CEPSA. Under the technical directorship of James Key, Chief Designer Luca Furbatto and his team in Faenza, along with the Wind Tunnel team in Bicester have come up with their interpretation of the radical technical regulation changes introduced for this year. The STR 9 is the first Scuderia Toro Rosso car to be powered by Renault. The car will make its official track debut tomorrow, with France’s Jean-Eric Vergne at the wheel. Daniil Kvyat will take over driving duties on Wednesday.

Daniil Kvyat

“I am very excited that I am about to start my first season in Formula 1. It will be a year of discovering many new things, which I expect will be very interesting. I can’t wait to actually start the driving part, the best part of my job. Six days of winter testing is not a lot and I will have to see how quickly I get used to the new car, which wasn’t a big issue when I drove the 2013 car. Being a rookie means there’s a steep learning curve, but the bright side of this year’s regulation change is that all the drivers will be getting used to a new way of driving, starting from zero. Anyway, I have always liked a big challenge. Physically, I feel ready after a good winter training programme, concentrating a bit on my neck muscles. The team hasn’t set me any specific targets, so its just a case of getting on top of my game as quickly as possible.”

Jean-Eric Vergne

“This will be my third season in Formula 1 and I definitely feel better prepared than ever before. From what I have seen in the factory, the same applies to the team. Now we must make the most of winter testing and work hard to ensure that all our efforts pay off. I am confident we have what we need to do well. From a driver’s point of view, we will have a lot of new elements to understand and changes that will require us to adapt as quickly as possible. That will be one of the tasks for winter tests, so that we can make the most of the package available right from the first race. We will have to adopt a different style of driving, especially in the races, with this new power unit combined with the need to manage fuel, while the changes to the rule regarding levels of downforce will make the cars feel different, offering less grip, which will also take some getting used to. It’s going to be a fascinating start to the year.”

Franz Tost

The 2014 season represents a very interesting challenge for all the Formula 1 teams,
with the sport facing the biggest change to the technical regulations that it has seen
over the past few decades. Here at Scuderia Toro Rosso we regard the coming months
and 19 Grands Prix not only as a challenge but also as a fantastic opportunity to step
up in the team hierarchy. Continuity is a key factor when it comes to making progress
and that applies to revenue streams as much as it does to the technical side of the
organisation, therefore I am pleased to say that sharing that opportunity with us will be
our long-term partners and sponsors, Red Bull, Cepsa and Nova Chemicals. In
addition, I’m delighted to welcome on board a new sponsor, the investment group
Sapinda. We at Toro Rosso thank them all for their support and the trust they have
shown in us.

The new rules have required a completely new design philosophy, starting with a clean
sheet of paper. Having invested in new staff and facilities over the past few years, we
have been able to tackle the task of designing and building the STR9 with a group of
engineers and designers that have been working on the project since Day 1, under the
leadership of James Key. That stability has been of great benefit, while in other areas
we hope that changes we have introduced will also bring a step up in performance.

Not only do we have a new engine configuration with the move to a 1.6 litre
turbocharged V6 coupled to two energy recovery systems, here at Toro Rosso we also
have a new engine supplier in the shape of Renault. The French company’s credentials
are impeccable, having won the World Championship titles for the past four years and
we have already established an excellent working relationship with its engineers, since
our partnership was announced at the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix. Joining forces with
Renault also means that, within the framework of the Sporting Regulations, we can
once again enjoy synergies on the technical front with our colleagues at Red Bull
Technology.

At the end of last year, Daniel Ricciardo “graduated” to Infiniti Red Bull Racing and
here at Toro Rosso we are pleased to be running Daniil Kvyat alongside Jean-Eric
Vergne. The Frenchman is in his third year with us and will naturally be expected to use
his experience to drive the team forward. However, the Russian rookie, the reigning
GP3 champion, is clearly very talented and I believe it won’t be long until our two
drivers are pushing one another very hard. Jev has a new race engineer, Xevi Pujolar,
who joined us at the start of the year, while Daniil will work with Marco Matassa who
ran Ricciardo last year. In recent months, we have also taken on other engineers to
strengthen our technical team, while also fine-tuning our organisational structure.

The new technical regulations alter the look of the cars for 2014 and combined with
new sporting rules, the way the races evolve will also have a different flavour:
restrictions on how much fuel can be used in a race and the speed at which it can be
fed into the engine will give the strategists a new challenge as they balance
performance against fuel economy, deciding how and when to make the most of the
energy recovery systems which will deliver far more power than their predecessors.
Increased torque and different engine characteristics will also impact on tyre
degradation and wear, two familiar parameters when it comes to picking the right
strategy for Sunday afternoon. The characteristics of the recovery systems and the turbo
chargers mean that cooling will be a major priority, while further restrictions on how
many engines and gearboxes can be used in a season make reliability the most critical
factor, especially in the early part of the season.

The purpose of the raft of changes to the rules is to make Formula 1 more
environmentally friendly and to use technologies that have more relevance to road
transport solutions of the future. However, the future of the sport itself depends on it
delivering a good show to the end user, the spectator watching from the side of the
track or in front of a screen somewhere. The fans just want to see exciting racing and
hopefully that is what they will get in 2014. As for what role Scuderia Toro Rosso will
play, it’s too early to tell and even harder than usual to make any predictions. What I
can say is that we must do better than in 2013 and move up the order.

James Key

James Key joined Scuderia Toro Rosso as Technical Director in September 2012. His
first thought skipped a year, because with 2013’s STR8 car already well underway
when he arrived in Faenza, the Englishman focussed on the major challenges for
2014, starting with the aerodynamic aspect of the project.

“The aero side was by far our biggest priority, as we wanted to put that department
into a much more current and competitive shape,” says Key. “Over the past twelve
months, we’ve been working on increasing the size of the aerodynamics department.
It’s grown significantly, and we now have many new people with very relevant F1
experience. We have more people joining us this year too, so I would describe it as a
work in progress, but the group is developing very well and becoming increasingly
close to the blueprint that we have in mind of what an aero department of a team of
this size and budget needs to be. We’re still getting there but it’s certainly heading in
the right direction. It’s been a big project, helped by the arrival of a new head of
Aerodynamics in Bicester, Brendan Gilhome last June, while we worked on 2014
without neglecting the task of making the most of the 2013 car as well. It’s still going
on but it’s developing very much in the direction it needs to be right now and we’re
making good progress.”

The switch to a 1.6 litre turbo engine for next year has been the biggest talking point
when it comes to this year’s major rule change and at Scuderia Toro Rosso, this has
also involved a change of partner, with Renault supplying what is now referred to as
the power unit (PU), primarily due to the significant mix of IC engine and Energy
Recovery Systems. “Changing your engine partner is always a bit of a step into the
unknown for both parties, until that working relationship is established and everyone
understands how best to operate together,” reckons Key. The agreement with Renault
was announced at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix and work begun immediately to
ensure things would go smoothly this year. “Renault were very supportive from the
outset, making sure we had a very good overview of what they’ve been up to with the
PU and their plans for development, so we were able to get up to speed very quickly
with it,” maintains Key. “To switch from a process where you’ve got a well-established
and understood way of working with the previous engine supplier to a situation where
you have not only a new engine supplier but also a totally different type of power unit
that we’re not familiar with at all, is quite a big leap. Not only are you trying to
establish the relationship, you’re doing it through what is a very complex project for
both sides. I have to say, Renault has been excellent at recognising that and helping us
out a great deal. They are very proactive and we have daily discussions between our
design team and theirs. We have already built up a good working relationship with
them.

One of the most commonly held myths in the F1 paddock is that Scuderia Toro Rosso is
just a satellite team to Infiniti Red Bull Racing, an incorrect assumption that dates back
to the first couple of years of the team’s existence, when the rules were different.
Today, with the exception of very few components, such as the gearbox internals and
the engine, the cars are entirely designed and manufactured in-house. This year’s
switch to Renault power, as used by Infiniti Red Bull Racing, means that once again, the
two teams can enjoy some technical synergies. “It makes sense, given that
fundamentally we are under the same ownership, to have the same power unit as Red
Bull, particularly with the arrival of such a complicated new set of regulations,”
continues Key. “Immediately, there’s a synergy there because we are using the same
power unit, we’ve been able to join with Red Bull Technology in using their gearbox
internals. They have a well-engineered solution to 2014 regulations for these
components, so again, it makes sense for us to join with them in using those common
internals while running the same power train. Otherwise, obviously, the rest of the car
is entirely an STR design.”

The new type of Power Unit has inevitably had an effect on other areas of the STR9
design. “The installation of the PU is in itself a big challenge, dealing with the cooling
circuits and other related elements, but the chassis and bodywork regulations have
gone through quite a big change as well and the cars look quite different this year in
some areas. So a big part of the chassis development has involved redeveloping the
aerodynamic philosophies in line with the new regulations and getting them to work
with all the other challenges that come along for 2014. Although certain areas of the
car will not look particularly different the subtle changes with the 2014 bodywork
regulations have had a surprisingly big effect, so we have had to re-evaluate some
significant areas of the cars aerodynamics”

Apart from the specific tasks aimed at being ready for action in Melbourne in mid-
March, work continues on improving the infrastructure and facilities and working
practices in the Faenza factory. “As far as the team is concerned, the summary is - it’s a
work in progress,” concludes Key. “We were quicker than the points scored suggested
in 2013, if you could look behind the numbers, but we didn’t make the most of our
opportunities. Therefore, we’re putting all our efforts into ensuring we have a better
situation for this year.”

Luca Furbatto

‘Saving the planet,’ ‘going green;’ it’s hard to avoid these topics in the modern world
and even Formula 1 and motor sport in general is being steered towards a less
profligate technology with the threat of the world’s supplies of fossil fuels running out
one day. Therefore, whether or not they are interested in these socio-political issues,
Formula 1 designers have faced a very busy couple of years when it comes to drawing
up the blueprints for the 2014 Grand Prix car. In the case of Scuderia Toro Rosso, that
task rests on the shoulders of Chief Designer Luca Furbatto.

“It has been a fantastic challenge but very hard work,” reckons Furbatto. “Pretty much
all the systems on the car are brand-new and that’s certainly a concern from a
reliability point of view as the season progresses, because we won’t have known
reference points from the past few years. Everyone in Faenza and Bicester has worked
very hard and we have invested in different technologies and simulations in order to be
as best-prepared as possible. We started STR9 in the summer of 2012, initially just
purely on the simulation side. When James Key arrived in late 2012, he focused mainly
on the 2014 car in terms of planning, simulation targets and internal resourcing whilst
we were still designing the STR8. To his credit we were able to perform the first STR9
wind tunnel test shortly before Christmas 2012, much earlier than previous Toro Rosso
projects.”

“The biggest change to the regulations involves switching from a normally aspirated
2.4 litre V8 to a 1.6 V6 turbocharged engine, which is only one component of what is
now referred to as the power unit, or power plant. “The new power unit consists of an
engine which is turbo-charged, a new and much powerful version of the Energy
Recovery System, operating as an electric motor/generator connected to the crankshaft
(MGU-K), and another electric motor/generator connected to the turbo (MGU-H),
running at a much higher speed” explains Furbatto. “The combination of these two
energy recovery systems is the hybrid part of the new power unit package, the ‘green’
effect of the next generation of Formula 1 cars. The engine, although it’s smaller and
more compact, requires a fairly complicated energy management with all those motors
and controllers working at the same time and exchanging energies between a battery
pack and the two electric motors”.

The cooling side has been a massive challenge for us as we have also had to deal with
the added factor of changing our engine supplier. In 2014 the hybrid proportion is
much more significant and therefore it generates more heat, that needs to be cooled
too. Furthermore, using a turbocharger means the engine requires intercoolers, which
we haven’t had on F1 cars since the mid-80s. Certainly, the radiator layout plays an
important role in the overall car layout and we had a few moving targets during the
design phase, which means we ended up sizing 17 different layouts for cooling on
STR9 and eventually committing to just one!

In doing so we relied on the work of several departments within Scuderia Toro Rosso
and we have invested heavily in doing dyno testing and core measurements to ensure
that we are as optimised as possible in terms of cooling. I am sure that activities
related to cooling refinements will continue over the course of this season”

While new engine rules have dominated the headlines, other aspects of car
performance have also been affected by the regulations, starting with aerodynamics,
where further restrictions have been imposed for 2014. Even if the emphasis has been
on power unit packaging, the aero side is still very important and will in fact have an
effect on how the new PU is run, specifically because of the 100 kg per race limit on
fuel. “Clearly, we are packaging things in a way that will allow us some development
flexibility also from the aerodynamic side because ultimately, we need to find a
performance sweet spot between aero, PU performance, fuel consumption and cooling
capability” continues Furbatto. “With this latest regulation there a finer balance
between downforce and drag due to the fuel consumption effect which has not been
such a big factor until this season.”

Apart from engine and aero changes, the new rules also allow for an interesting new
braking technology. “Braking By Wire, or BBW is another new system that we will race
in 2014,” continues Furbatto. “In order to open up energy harvesting strategies during
the braking phase the FIA will allow a semi active electronic control of the rear braking
pressure line. The BBW will allow the braking load to fluctuate from pure engine
braking to pure friction braking or any combination in between without the driver
noticing it on the brake pedal! The exact amount of brake pressure on the rear line will
be mapped against engine braking that will then be used to recharge the on-board
batteries.”

Another change in the rules is that the minimum weight of the car has gone up by 50
kg. That sounds a lot, but much of it is simply absorbed by the fact the new power unit
weighs more than the V8 it replaces. “In addition, there are enhanced safety structures
for side impact and the chassis has been made significantly stronger than last year so
the weight of the survival cell will go up in this area too,” adds Furbato. We will only be
able to carry a very limited amount of ballast or no ballast at all, depending of the
driver’s weight. The possibility of running without ballast could be a limitation, both in
terms of weight distribution, tune ability or simply tipping over the edge of being
overweight.”

“The 2014 rules have meant a completely new car this year and Furbatto reckons
around 98% of STR9 is brand new. “We started an aggressive weight saving
programme on STR8 in order to get prepared for 2014. The only thing we kept of STR8
is the pedal set, although even here we managed to reduce the weight of it last
summer” he reveals.

“Looking at the STR9 project as a whole, I believe that all the departments in Faenza
and also in Bicester have worked together more closely than ever before”. That has
been challenging at times but helped us to gel further as a Team.

Laurent Mekies

At the start of 2013, Laurent Mekies took on the new role of Head of Vehicle
Performance, however, circumstances dictated that he also continued to oversee
engineering at the races. Now with Phil Charles taking on the role of Chief Engineer,
Mekies can concentrate fully on his new position, once he has explained what Vehicle
Performance is all about!

“Effectively, if you accept that the work of the designers and engineers is to bring the
lap time down for your car, then the work of the Vehicle Performance Department is to
look for the less obvious ways of doing it,” begins the Frenchman. “Everyone knows
that if you add downforce on the car, it will go faster, if you reduce the drag on the car,
it will go faster. That’s the job of the aero department. If you make a lighter car, it will
go faster. That’s one of the jobs of the design office. We in Vehicle Performance are
looking at all the less obvious aspects of changing the lap times. It starts from all the
simulation work which is used to decide what kind of characteristics we want to target,
what we want in terms of the suspension or what we are looking for in terms of aeroperformance and so on. From that point, we try to convert our ideas all the way
through the chain, up as far as the race engineering side at the race track, in working
to find the best possible set-up for the car.”

The staff of the Vehicle Performance department do not possess skills that cannot be
found elsewhere in the company. The difference is that, with Vehicle Performance,
people from each of those groups now spend all their working time together, rather
than just coming together for meetings. “Therefore the group is responsible for a very
large part of all the potential performance,” continues Mekies. “In the one department
you have all the guys who are able to alter the car to do what it’s supposed to do. For
example, if you are surprised at the race track by differences between what you have
simulated and what you have found, you have the person that’s designing the
simulations there with you. It’s about trying to put all the guys doing the lap time in the
same room. At the end of the day, it’s six small groups that are interacting and
overlapping all the time to make sure we squeeze as much as possible out of the car’s
performance potential.”

The demands of 2014 will provide a good test of the effectiveness of this new structure,
as the first year of a major rule change always sees cars change very rapidly
throughout the season. “It will help us to keep in line with the kind of development rate
that is now needed to lead the mid-field, so we needed this additional firing power,”
concludes Mekies. “It’s especially true now that we also have the return of some inseason
testing, which will mean the pace of development will be even higher.”