Coulthard: Toro Rosso will struggle to improve car

Ex-Formula 1 racer David Coulthard has said that Toro Rosso face a struggle to improve their car over the course of the season, because of their inexperienced driver line-up.

Max Verstappen, 17, and Carlos Sainz, 20, will make their F1 debuts for the team this season, leading Coulthard to suggest that both drivers lack the necessary experience to fully develop a car.

He told Sky Sports News: “The engineers and designers have to go with what they believe is the best package to develop the car, but you need leadership from behind the wheel.

“You need great interaction between the driver and the aerodynamicist or the chief mechanical engineer and that interaction is so important.

“In the respect of young drivers without the experience, they have to get the experience somewhere, but a better pairing in many respects would be one experienced and one rookie.”

Max Verstappen

Coulthard, who raced for Toro Rosso’s senior sister team Red Bull for four seasons, believes that the Toro Rosso engineering department will have to be more creative in their debriefs to get the right feedback.

“They’ve got to run a slightly different format of debriefs and understanding and educating the drivers and really trying to eke out from them, asking the right questions.

“With the benefit of experience you hone in on what the key area of development needs to be- what is it that is making it difficult for you to go faster? It seems like a simple thing to ask, but actually separating aerodynamic from mechanical is such a difficult thing to do at times.”

Toro Rosso will debut their 2015 car at the first test in Jerez.

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