Toro Rosso-Honda's crucial early win

We've heard many times from McLaren about how big a job it is to integrate a different engine package into the chassis. Well, Toro Rosso is a much smaller team and has had the same task in the reverse direction by switching from Renault to Honda.

Toro Rosso has been unfortunate enough to have made such changes a lot recently, having used Renault engines in 2015, year-old Ferraris in '16, Renault again the year after and now Honda for '18! For a team with that manpower and budget, having to do that job does mean there's so much more that it can't get on and do.

But this is a tidy-looking car nonetheless. The car has joined the club of the current regulations by taking some of the best ideas from both Mercedes and Ferrari, who seemed destined to lead the way.

The Toro Rosso front wing and nose assembly is the normal multi-element device. There are some different ways of doing things and it's always interesting to look at the inboard end of the flaps.

For some teams, the flaps curve down and there's some quite subtle changes there with some having them straighter. When you have a flap that's fairly straight, you set up a vortex at the end of it called the Y250 vortex, which pre-2017 was quite important.

But with the new regulations, it's not so critical because there's more room for the bargeboards to do their work behind. Toro Rosso swoops that part of the wing down quite dramatically, cancelling out that effect and separating the FIA-mandated neutral central section of the wing from the outboard part. Some teams have done this, some haven't.

Toro Rosso has carried over the high-wishbone front suspension from last year. The general philosophy of the car is a development of the package it had last year, but adapting to trends set by Ferrari and Mercedes.

In the bargeboard area, Toro Rosso has all the bits and pieces in the right places. But that's only a visual impression and it's about getting them all to work together properly. That's what makes a good F1 car, and it takes hundreds of hours of windtunnel and CFD work to know that.

The negatives that we've heard about Honda in the past don't seem to be a problem. Most importantly, this does not look like a car that has been compromised to package the engine

The integration of the halo is good. It's one of the teams that has put a vane on the top with a gap to try to tidy up the airflow behind it going to the airbox intake. A round tube is not very good for airflow and the teams are trying to clean things up.

I'm sure we'll see some developments there across the field, although the rules don't allow you to do too much. For example you can't put a long trailing edge on it to make it into a wing section.

The diffuser is a decent package, which connects up well to the rear tyres - that's always vitally important. With these cars, everyone always looks to the front of the car, but you don't push air around a car, you pull it from behind. So, with the airflow you have to start at the back of the car and work your way forwards as that's what's pulling the airflow back through the coke bottle, undercut sidepods, bargeboards and even across the front wing surfaces.

The engine cover is about minimising the cross-sectional area and that's been done well as part of a neat and tidy package.

You have to entice the airflow to go in the direction that you think is best. When you see those big aero rakes on the car, that's measuring the airflow and direction and velocity away from the car body surface. That's what influences the airflow on the bodywork and you need to understand it to ensure its working the way that you want it to.

As a team, Toro Rosso is pretty happy with the Honda engine and the negatives that we've heard about in the past don't seem to be a problem. There's a different set of pressures in this relationship compared to McLaren-Honda, so hopefully that's helped.

Most importantly, this does not look like a car that has been compromised to package the engine. There's no bulky areas or bulges that jump out at you as a problem. The Honda has always sounded a bit different at lower rpm in the pits, so you know that's the engine in it now. But beyond the sound, you wouldn't know and Toro Rosso has done a good job.

Hopefully, the working relationship with Honda stays positive and Toro Rosso and Honda can make real progress during the year from this promising starting point.