Why Red Bull's junior team has gone rogue

Scuderia Toro Rosso was created as Red Bull Racing's 'B team', a place to give talented young drivers from its junior programme a first step on the Formula 1 ladder.

Since 2006, Toro Rosso has run 12 drivers across 12 seasons, and four - Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen - have turned that opportunity into a promotion to the senior team.

It has also emerged as the sixth best constructor on the grid, which is impressive given the size of its budget, but Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost wants more.

Fifth was the target this year, and although that remains possible with five races to go, it relies on better-resourced teams such as McLaren and Renault underperforming.

To achieve that target based on raw performance, change was required. And the opportunity presented itself when McLaren got the divorce it craved from Honda.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko met with Honda motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto earlier this year, and though talks initially stopped at Honda's request, they restarted ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.

Yamamoto managed to convince his board that the Toro Rosso project could work and in a relatively short space of time, a deal was signed off.

But why would Toro Rosso team up with Honda, the worst of the current engine suppliers, with a dismal record across three years, both in terms of power and reliability?

"Of course, they had some technical problems in the past but we know this modern power unit is a very complex challenge," Tost explains to Autosport.

"Honda ran out of time to improve the performance in a dramatic way, as maybe they expected, or as McLaren expected, but I am sure that they are moving in the right direction and in 2018 they will make a big step forward.

"I am more than convinced that from 2019 and 2020, the engine will be on the level of the other performers."

That is a bold claim. Not quite as bold as Honda's target of a top-three finish next season, but bold nonetheless. What gives Tost so much confidence?

"Honda is a big factory with a lot of resources," he says. "They have the infrastructure to build up a successful operation in F1."

The three-year deal also gives Toro Rosso the stability it has long craved. It had a stable relationship with Ferrari between 2007 and 2013, but has often felt like second or recently third in line when it comes to its demands of an engine manufacturer.

And in the past few years even that stability has gone, with a switch to Renault in 2014, then back to Ferrari for '16, then back again this season. Now another is in the offing.

"Continuity in any Formula 1 team is key to success," says Tost. "We had really many difficulties in the past with very short calls for engine changes.

"Nowadays, such an engine change is not so easy because of the complicated power unit, because of all the elements around the power unit, the MGU-H, the MGU-K, the cooling systems, the battery.

"We are the third Renault team and we have felt like it a couple of times already" Franz Tost

"Therefore I'm looking forward to next year, as it's the first season for a while where we don't have to change the power unit that late."

It also means Toro Rosso will have an engine supplier all to itself for the first time in its history.

"We have the chance to work together as the only team with such a big company like Honda," says Tost. "This is a big step forward for Toro Rosso. Currently with Renault, we are the third team and we have felt it a couple of times already unfortunately.

"Honda is a fantastic partner for Toro Rosso because we are the only team. It's in our hands to get the most from this collaboration.

"That also means from the design of the car, we do not need to look and take care for other partners, like it was in the past, when they said you can't design, for example, the exhaust system in this way because the others don't have it and you must do it like the others do it.

"It means we do not need to go for any compromises. This is a performance advantage and I'm convinced we're in a position to get the most out of it. Especially from 2019 onwards, because for that season, we will have much more time to prepare everything in the best possible way."

Toro Rosso first spoke to Honda about an engine supply four years ago but a deal never materialised. Given the current state of play, with Toro Rosso feeling neglected and Honda in need of a team where it can prove it has the capacity to deliver, Tost feels this is the right time.

"I do not see this as a risk," he says. "It is less a risk than to continue with another engine manufacturer. I prefer to be together with Honda instead of being a third Renault team."

The late decision will be a challenge for Toro Rosso, but it is one the team is well versed in. It concluded its 2016 engine deal with Ferrari in December 2015.

"We're used to it," says Tost. "We're professional in changing engines. Our design office is flexible. One of our strengths is that we are flexible. We're a small team and that means we can, in a short time, react and make changes, especially in the design office where others maybe need more time."

It is that efficiency that bodes well for Toro Rosso-Honda. One of Honda's biggest frustrations with McLaren was the time it felt it took to instigate tweaks.

"We are open for any changes or developments if the performance improves and I think this is one of the strengths of Toro Rosso," says Tost. "We are a smaller team. It's not complicated if you have to change something, it is decided in a few minutes, because our structure is built for this."

Communication was another problem in the McLaren-Honda relationship, but Tost is convinced there will be no such repeat with Toro Rosso.

"I've lived one year in Japan, I think I know exactly which way to go to prevent this," he says. "I feel I know the mentality of Japanese people and how they work so we can prevent some problems because communication is a key factor within this operation.

"We are heading in a good direction to sort out these problems. I think already the communication between the different departments is working quite well.

"Therefore I don't expect a big problem on the communication side. We have different methods - which I don't tell you - to sort out these problems."

While Toro Rosso will not receive the lavish annual $100million cheque from Honda that McLaren was treated to, it will get free engines and development - a huge cost saving for a small team.

That will be key, especially as its collaboration with Red Bull - which was becoming closer and driving its cost down - will be substantially reduced given that the two outfits will be using different power units.

"Honda have learned a lot with McLaren. And now Toro Rosso will profit from it" Franz Tost

Toro Rosso was set to take the complete rear end from Red Bull, but will now push on with its own bespoke rear suspension, while also producing its own gearbox.

"Unfortunately the synergy process is currently not on the level we expected it to be for next year any more," says Tost. "As we have a completely different power unit, we have our own gearbox, we have a different rear suspension - and as a result also the front suspension since it is an aerodynamic alignment between the suspensions. Currently there is no closer collaboration regarding the car."

It's quite an undertaking, but having upgraded its Faenza base, bringing around 90% of the Italian facility under one roof, and restructured the technical team, with James Key at the helm, Toro Rosso is in a good position to respond.

Crucially, the Toro Rosso-Honda deal also makes sense for Red Bull Racing. The four-time world champion team is in search of a new engine partner, since its dysfunctional relationship with Renault is beyond permanent repair.

As part of the Toro Rosso-Honda discussions, Marko said Red Bull would be interested in taking the engines if Honda could show a sufficient improvement, possibly as early as 2019.

Toro Rosso is the guinea pig once again, but at least it is the only one.

It has previously worked with three suppliers - Cosworth, Ferrari and Renault - and each time it was simply a customer who received an engine. It had little to no option of refining that package to its own car.

The Honda partnership may not be a full works deal, since Honda is not pumping any money directly into the team, but Toro Rosso is the priority in the eyes of the Japanese company.

It will get the full backing of one of the world's biggest automotive manufacturers, and one that is motivated to heal its wounds and restore its credibility after a bruising time with McLaren.

It remains to be seen whether Honda can improve enough to match or even beat its rivals. But Honda will continue to pump significant resources into its engine programme in a bid to deliver on its promise to its board, prove McLaren wrong, and win again in F1.

If it succeeds, Toro Rosso will have played a blinder. Fail and the team is not any worse off than it would be if it remained third in the pecking order with another manufacturer.

It's no wonder Tost doesn't see this deal as a risk. He's got his eyes on the potential reward.

"Honda have learned a lot with McLaren," he says with a smile. "And now Toro Rosso will profit from it."