Toro Rosso could start '08 with old car

The Italian team's machine is produced by Red Bull Technologies and, with the final design set to be signed off quite late to maximize development time, it means there may not be enough time for Toro Rosso to get everything as ready as they would like for the start of the season..

Although a final decision has not been made yet about where Toro Rosso will introduce their new car, team principal Franz Tost has confirmed that the plans are still wide open.

"At the moment it looks easier to start next year with this year's model," he told autosport.com. "We are reviewing the situation for next year right now, but we are not yet 100 percent certain what we will do."

Despite seeing a great opportunity for a big haul of points slip through the team's fingers in Japan, Tost is happy that the outfit are making progress.

"The people at Toro Rosso are pushing very hard and I must say that we are making steps forward," he said. "We are becoming better but at the end we have to prove it with results.

"It will be very hard work during the winter time and we will see where we end up next season."

And although he accepts Sebastian Vettel's podium challenging pace in Japan owed much to the tricky weather conditions, he is eyeing improvement performances in the final two races of the year.

"I must say that all the circumstances here in Fuji helped us," he said. "We were always out at the correct time and I don't expect us, under normal weather conditions, to be driving in third place because our opponents are too competitive.

"This would be dreaming. But our target is that in Shanghai as well as Sao Paolo we will come in the second qualifying group and then we will see."