Coulthard: The inexperience of Toro Rosso drivers could be problematic

David Coulthard believes that team Toro Rosso might somewhat struggle during the season with two rookies driving its cars – Carlos Sainz Jr and Max Verstappen. The former Williams, McLaren, and Red Bull driver fears that the development of the STR10 – which recently passed the FIA crash tests – could be complicated.

« The engineers and designers must work with what they believe is the best package to develop the car, but you need a leader behind the wheel. You need good interaction between the driver and the aerodynamicist or the chief mechanical engineer, and this interaction is very important, » the Scottish driver told Sky Sports Online.

But he is also well aware that beginners need to have their chance in F1 and that the Toro Rosso team is there for that within Red Bull’s F1 program: « As for young inexperienced drivers, they need to gain experience somewhere, but in many ways, a better duo would have been an experienced driver and a beginner. But that’s the purpose of Toro Rosso, to provide a platform for young drivers, and if they perform well, they can move on to the next step. »

The winner of 13 Grand Prix believes that the engineers of the Faenza team will have to do their best to find the right answers from the two drivers: « They will have to format the debriefings a bit differently and understand and educate the drivers and really try to extract things [from the drivers], by asking them the right questions. With the benefit of experience, you refine what should be the main development area – what is making it difficult for you to go faster? It seems like a simple question to ask, but actually separating aerodynamics from mechanics is something complicated to do at the moment. »