F1 mid-season review part four: Toro Rosso slides back as McLaren makes progress

In the fourth part of our mid-year review of the 2016 Formula 1 season, JAonF1 studies the form of Toro Rosso and McLaren, the teams that currently occupy sixth and seventh in the constructors’ championship.

Toro Rosso began the year strongly, with five points finishes from the opening three races as it enjoyed a significant power unit performance boost from its 2015-spec Ferrari engine over the Renault system it used last year.

Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen had a memorable team orders spat in the closing stages of the Australian Grand Prix, but any lingering tension between the two drivers was removed when Red Bull promoted the Dutchman to its senior squad and sent Daniil Kvyat back to Toro Rosso after his disastrous home event in Sochi.

The Italian team’s new line-up scored a notable double points finish at the Spanish Grand Prix, which was slightly overshadowed by Verstappen’s sensational race win, but since then it has slowly slipped back as the lack of upgrades to its 2015 engine has meant the teams using 2016 power units have begun to move ahead.

Sainz’s sixth place in Barcelona equals Verstappen’s season best result from Bahrain and he has delivered eight top-ten finishes from the first 12 races of the season.

Kvyat however, has suffered considerably since his demotion. He retired from the Monaco Grand Prix after getting an ambitious move on Kevin Magnussen wrong and then crashed heavily in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix when his rear suspension broke on the Red Bull Ring’s notorious kerbs. The Russian sound utterly dejected after exiting in Q1 for the German Grand Prix but his pace relative to Sainz in the race meant he went into the summer break on a higher note.

McLaren’s season got off to a rocky start as Fernando Alonso crashed into the back of Esteban Gutierrez in the Melbourne race in a massive collision that brought out the red flags, and he suffered rib and lung injuries that forced him to miss the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Alonso’s one-off replacement, Stoffel Vandoorne, delivered the team’s first point of the season with a great drive to tenth in that race, before the double world champion returned for China.

Both Alonso and Jenson Button made it into the points in Barcelona, where the Spaniard put a McLaren into Q3 for the first time since the team renewed its relationship with Honda at the start of 2015. He repeated that feat for the next two races and scored a season high of fifth at Monaco.

Although McLaren has only finished in the points on three occasions since that race, there is a sense that it has made real progress with its Honda engine and Button enjoyed a stint towards the front of the race in Austria, where he delivered his best result of the season so far with sixth.

Pace progression

A look Toro Rosso and McLaren’s best times from qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix – the first purpose built track F1 visited this season – versus the qualifying result for the recent German Grand Prix, shows how the British team has moved forward as the Italian squad has stalled somewhat due to its 2015 engine.

Verstappen was almost 0.2s faster than Vandoorne in Bahrain, but by Germany Button was able to out-qualify Sainz – although the relatively short nature of Hockenheim compared to the Sakir circuit means the gap may well have been bigger given Honda’s recent power unit developments.

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Driver highs and lows – Carlos Sainz:

While his former teammate Verstappen was winning the Barcelona race for Red Bull, Sainz delivered close to a perfect weekend for Toro Rosso as he qualified eighth and finished sixth in the race, which is probably the maximum he could have achieved.

His Russian Grand Prix penalty for forcing Jolyon Palmer off track was a blot on his early season, while a three-place grid penalty for impeding Felipe Massa in qualifying in Germany was also needless as Toro Rosso is beginning to struggle for pace given its older spec engine.

Fernando Alonso:

Alonso’s season highlight so far is undoubtedly his fifth place finish at Monaco, where he briefly thought a surprise podium might be on. He was fast in the changing conditions and then held Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes at bay in the closing stages.

The Spaniard’s low-point is his Melbourne crash as he clattered into Gutierrez under braking – although neither driver was penalised for the incident. But it still meant he missed the Bahrain event despite his insistence that he was fit enough to race. Alonso deserves credit for his decision to stay on there and learn how the team operates from outside the cockpit rather than going home.

Daniil Kvyat:

It almost seems like Kvyat’s Chinese Grand Prix podium never happened given his subsequent demotion and problems. He charged into Turn 1 in Shanghai and although Sebastian Vettel vocally blamed him for causing the collision between the German and his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen, Kvyat was less at fault that it first appeared and he did well to give Red Bull its first podium finish of 2016.

But his home race in Sochi was an absolute disaster as he twice ran into the back of Vettel in the first three corners, the first of which also impacted on his teammate Daniel Ricciardo’s race and the second sent the Ferrari into the barriers. Kvyat was demoted to Toro Rosso for the next race and looks like his F1 career may well come to an end at the close of the season if he cannot reverse his current fortunes after the summer break.

Jenson Button:

The 2009 world champion’s stand-out moment so far in 2016 came when he qualified fifth in Austria, which became third when Rosberg and Vettel had their grid penalties applied. He ran second early on and finished sixth – the maximum possible result that was really on for McLaren in that race.

Hungary marked Button’s low-point although through no fault of his own. He suffered a gearbox problem early in the race and then got hit with a penalty for receiving instructions on how to cope with it. After ranting against the radio rules, which were finally lifted before the next race, he ultimately retired with an oil leak.

Stoffel Vandoorne:

On his one-off appearance in place of the injured Alonso in Bahrain the Belgian driver out-qualified Button and then brilliantly scored his first F1 point, and McLaren’s first of the season, with tenth in the race.

Looking ahead

Toro Rosso is likely to slip further back given its older engine, especially at power sensitive tracks like Spa and Monza. But it has two drivers capable of delivering headline-grabbing results – although Kvyat will need to turn them into positive ones.

Sainz has been re-signed for 2017 for a rare third season with the Italian team, which will be boosted by the news the squad will use 2017 Renault engines next season, as will Red Bull.

McLaren and Honda have made significant progress since the start of the season and the squad is currently just three points behind Toro Rosso in the constructors’ championship. It’s hard not to see the British team moving up to sixth in the standings, although it may be hard pressed to catch Williams and Force India in fourth and fifth, but this can’t be discounted just yet.

The big question mark at McLaren for the rest of the season will be over its 2017 driver line-up. Vandoorne is widely expected to be slotted in alongside Alonso, which leaves Button contemplating his F1 future.