F1 2019 Pre-Season Report: Toro Rosso

Here we assess what is in the offing for Toro Rosso, who welcome back a familiar face.

Toro Rosso had a settled year by their own standards, using only two drivers for the first time since 2015, but it did not deliver results as they finished ninth in the constructors' championship.

The main positive of the campaign was the performance of Pierre Gasly, who impressed with a fourth-place finish in Bahrain and a sixth-place finish in Hungary, earning promotion to Red Bull for 2019.

In that sense, Toro Rosso served their purpose as a junior team, but 33 points delivered their lowest finish since 2012.

That’s a wrap on pre-season testing for 2019! @kvyatofficial finishes today’s session with 131 laps and a best time of 1:16.898 pic.twitter.com/svS7bWRxkF

— Toro Rosso (@ToroRosso) March 1, 2019

One of the more surprising announcements for the new season saw Kvyat return to a Toro Rosso seat, having been dropped at the back end of the 2017 campaign and demoted from Red Bull early in the previous championship.

The Russian spent last year as a Ferrari simulator driver - a position now taken up by outgoing Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley - and will be glad of another chance to prove himself in F1.

In a year of so many driver changes, Albon's name has perhaps been lost among the noise for some casual fans.

The Thai-British driver finished third in Formula 2 last year but crashed on the first lap of his test debut in Barcelona last month.

. @alex_albon straight into it pic.twitter.com/A5Zga4TFGr

— Toro Rosso (@ToroRosso) February 28, 2019

- Toro Rosso still clearly see some potential in Kvyat and returning him to the kind of form that saw him picked up by Red Bull will hold the key to whether they can improve on last year's showing.

- With Red Bull now also using Honda power, Toro Rosso can prove an even greater ally to their sister team.