Toro Rosso is looking into re-branding its Renault power unit, just like Red Bull does with TAG Heuer at the moment.
So, it seems Formula 1 teams aren’t keen on running power units with the Renault name at the moment.
First, Red Bull suffered a tough 2015 and tried to find another engine supplier, but failed to do so and had to go back to Renault.
An agreement was made to re-brand the Renault power units TAG Heuer and it appears Toro Rosso wants to go down a similar path.
Last year the Italian outfit ran year-old Ferrari engines and while it worked out well at the start of the season, performance eventually tailed off…
Toro Rosso gets Renault power for 2017 but team boss Franz Tost has admitted the team is looking into ditching the tag and going down the Red Bull route by re-branding the engine.
Here’s what he told Gazzetta dello Sport:
“We have the possibility to find a title sponsor to rebrand our 2017 engine, as Red Bull did last year. We’re in talks with a sponsor.”
Poor Renault. Don’t worry, if we were an F1 team, we’d keep your name on it.
Toro Rosso seems to be pretty organised as the team’s 2017 car, the STR12, has already passed crash tests and looks set to run at a filming day before testing. Tost said:
“We’re respecting the road map. We did crash tests and we’ll do a filming day with the new car before the start of the winter test at Barcelona.”