Scuderia Toro Rosso STR5 Launch

[prisonermonkeys]

Keeping with the policy of one-launch-per-thread, I'm starting this one now becuse it's currently 6:35am in Valencia and I am told that Toro Rosso will be launching some time within the next two hours (is this close enough to the actual launch, daan?). I can't speak as to when the Williams FW32 will be released, nor can I say with any certainty when the covers will come off the Mercedes MGP W01, but I do know that the first day of testing will begin at 9am, so I imagine they'd want to get the launches out of the way as soon as possible.

Anyway, the STR5 is a big step for Toro Rosso because it is the first car they have designed and built on their own. Until now, they've been running the same chassis as Red Bull, with both teams acquiring them from a design studio, the Red Bull Technology Centre to get around the ban on customer chassis (what is the plural of 'chassis', anyway? Chassisis? Chassii?). This being their fifth year of competition, it's going to be make-or-break time for the team. They have a race win to their credit and they know what they're doing, so fi the car is no good, it could be da svidaniya come 2011.

And in other Toro Rosso news, Jaime Alguersuari has abandoned his 2009 helmet design and gone back to his original jungle-themed one.

Edit
First picture:

http://twitpic.com/10tw9a

Looks almost identical to 2009.

 

[PeterJB]

Seems like they'd have been better off using Red Bull's chassis. Buemi was six seconds behind today!

 

[Danny]

(what is the plural of 'chassis', anyway? Chassisis? Chassii?)

The plural of chassis is chassis.

Not a huge leap forward, really. Interested to see what they're going to do with this...