Max Verstappen is excited to start the new season as he reckons the 2015 Ferrari engine that will power Toro Rosso this season will bring a performance improvement of one second per lap.

Toro Rosso will run with the same specification of Ferrari engine that the Scuderia used at the end of last season, which was close to Mercedes on performance and proved reliable, something the Toro Rosso drivers can only dream of after their experience with the Renault last year.

But despite lacking the upgrade that will come with a 2016 power unit, Verstappen is still expecting a significant improvement on the Renault.

Writing on his website, the 18-year-old said: “Things are looking good. Of course you always aim to improve the car but the first signs do look promising. The STR10 was already very good in fast corners, so I’m looking forward what this year’s car brings.”

“The Ferrari engine is probably the biggest step. I’m expecting a lot from it. A big gain on the engine front makes everything a lot easier. I expect to gain about a second a lap because of engine performance alone, which is a lot. So I think we can make bigger steps than our close rivals.”

During the early part of the 2015 season, Toro Rosso regularly raced with the main Red Bull team and upstaged its related outfit on several occasions. The Italian team’s pace was put down to its strong chassis and aero performance and the team did well on high downforce tracks.

Toro Rosso’s pace was so strong during the early part of last year that it upset the team’s former driver Daniil Kvyat after his early struggles following his promotion to Red Bull, although the Russian driver told Autosport that this was ultimately good for the two teams as it demonstrated their strength in depth.

He said: “Toro Rosso built an extremely strong car that matched us quite a lot. It was another thing that wasn't easy to accept for me at the beginning of the year.

"But I had to put these kind of thoughts away, and in the end, as a group, we scored more points than them. It's fair enough to compare because the cars are very similar."

The 2015 engine will be a step up on the Renault unit the team used last year after Ferrari improved its design to become the second best power unit on the F1 grid. When allied to Toro Rosso’s widely praised chassis concept, the power boost should allow the team to improve again in 2016 and it will hope to capitalise on any struggles its competition faces with their up-to-date engines.

But when the news of the Ferrari supply was announced last month, Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost warned that the last-minute nature of the deal meant it would be tight to make the first winter test.

He said: "It's great to be working with Ferrari again. We had a fruitful relationship in the past and I'm sure it won't take long for us all to be working together very well again.

“It's true that time will be very tight for us to be ready for the first test, but we have the right team of people for this and I'm confident that together we will achieve a competitive package for next year – bring on 2016!"

Engines in the spotlight

As the 2016 season approaches, power unit performance will once again be under scrutiny. Ferrari hopes its winter upgrades will allow it to fight Mercedes at the front of the grid, while Red Bull will have to wait and see if Renault’s efforts will be an improvement over 2015, as the Austrian outfit will run the French manufacturer’s engines rebadged as TAG Heuer.

On Friday 15 January, the deadline for the FIA’s call for engine producers to present solutions to the noise, complexity, cost and supply issues currently associated with the sport's V6 turbo power units closes, as F1’s stakeholders seek agreement on changes that can be incorporated for the 2017 season, or 2018 at the latest.