sofaF1

A team that probably should have done better last year. They had a year old car which can't have helped things. But then they had the rev limited V10. To be fair to them they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't. If they had done well the stewards would have further limited their engines and then they would have been at the back of the grid. As it was they didn't need any help from the stewards.

The Drivers

[These are the provisional drivers as the final team line up hasn't been announced.]

I'm not sure I've ever understood what people see in Liuzzi. Or rather what they used to see. Of course it's hard to see how well either of the drivers have done in a car which was troubling all year and difficult to drive. I can see why Burger hasn't declared what he's doing next year yet. His drivers haven't out driven the car this year.

Scott Speed has the same problems as above but in addition is, despite his name, slower. And more arrogant.

The team

This year they will have a better car and better engines in theory. The team however doesn't seem as together and driven as those around them.

The problems

We know how hard Red Bull pushed to have Renault engines rather than Ferrari ones. This clearly means that the Renault engines will work much better with the chasis that Red Bull and Torro Rosso will be sharing. We also know from last year that the Ferrari engine has all kinds of packing problems which can make it overheat. I think that Adrian Newey will not bother to solve this problem properly. So I think Torro Rosso could have to run the engine at a seriously compromised power output.

Outside Bet?

Torro Rosso beat Red Bull. This is the most outside bet so far.

More Likely?

A stinker of a season.