Speed says V10 a disadvantage

Some rival outfits are upset that Toro Rosso's decision to run the restricted V10 power-units could hand them the edge over some of the V8-powered teams.

But Speed has rubbished those claims, and instead believes that Toro Rosso are going to face a handicap this year because of their engine choice.

"Certainly, it's a big disadvantage for us because the V8 is the future of Formula One," he told reporters. "In the meantime, we're missing out of a year of development. It's at this point, not a performance advantage for us.

"Perhaps at the beginning of the year we could have a slight reliability advantage. But really by the end of the year, and certainly even now, the V8s are adapting and they're evolving, and they're already breaking track records in testing that they had from the V10 era.

"So we're really crossing our fingers that they don't develop the V8s to where we're completely uncompetitive. But as it stands now, I think it's a pretty equal playing ground."

The FIA have introduced an air intake restriction and rev-limit in a bid to ensure that the V10s perform at the same level as V8s this year, although these parameters will be changed if the equivalency aim does not work.