Fifth in 2015 F1 championship no fantasy target insists Toro Rosso

The Faenza-based squad finished a distant seventh in the 2014 title race, a massive 125 points adrift of sixth-placed F1 rival Force India.

STR would need to defeat at least one of the four 'works' teams (Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren) or Williams to achieve its target, but Tost insisted ahead of Sunday's first pre-season test at Jerez that his team could do it.

"The target is clearly to finish fifth in the constructors' championship, which means the drivers must be permanently in the points," Tost said.

"The team is getting better and better - we are building up quite a big infrastructure in Faenza.

"In the last two or three years we've [also] built up a strong technical team under James [Key] and this year we will make a big jump forward.

"[With] the package we've got from the car side, the driver side and the financial side, we simply must be in a position for fifth in the championship. I am convinced we can achieve it."

2014 BETTER THAN IT LOOKED

Technical director James Key said Toro Rosso had been much closer to McLaren and Force India with last year's STR9 than the points table suggested.

He reckons this makes the target of fifth in the 2015 title race more realistic than might otherwise be expected.

"Last year we were distant in points but we weren't that distant in performance - we just didn't make the most of it," he said.

"If you look at McLaren and Force India, a lot of the year we qualified with them or ahead of them; we simply didn't make it work in the race, whether through reliability issues, a bit of bad luck, an accident, or something else.

"When you calculate the number of points we genuinely missed, the total is massive. It wouldn't have got us fifth place if you add them up, but it would have got us a hell of a lot closer than the 30 we got."

Key conceded Tost's target was ambitious, but said it would be good for the team to aim high.

"There is nothing wrong with having a bit of ambition; we don't want to be seventh," he added.

"There are no guarantees but you have to set yourself high targets.

"When you think about that sort of target of course you recognise you have to compete against teams that have won world championships in the past.

"Toro Rosso hasn't won a championship, so we have to build up to that."