James Key feels the Scuderia Toro Rosso team is often misunderstood as they do much more of their own development than many Formula 1 fans believe, with their aerodynamic department in Bicester the home of their own wind tunnel.
Technical Director Key says Toro Rosso do the whole design of their car in their Italian base at Faenza, with Red Bull Technology only supplying the internal components of the gearbox that go into a Toro Rosso-designed gearbox.
Whilst Key admits it would make sense to join together with sister team Red Bull Racing, the car is designed and built in-house, and it leaves him frustrated that they are often referred to as a ‘b-team’ to Christian Horner’s outfit.
“I think there’s a lot more going on at STR than people think,” said Key to Motorsport.com. “People don’t know STR, it’s really frustrating.
“Although it makes a lot of sense to join together [with RBR] where you can, we’ve got our own aero department in Bicester, with our own wind tunnel, and that’s entirely independent because it has to be legally.
“The entire design of the car is done in Faenza. So the only bit of the car that comes from RBT is the gearbox internals which are jointly designed, because there are often things that we specifically need.”
