We’ve seen the other nine teams’ Formula One cars for this year, so where is Scuderia Toro Rosso’s new STR12? Its launch today has been delayed slightly due to a problem with the Renault power unit on the team’s filming day, reports . Uh-oh. Here we go again!
Scuderia Toro Rosso released the following on Friday:
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the launch presentation of our new car, the STR12, has been delayed by 90 minutes.
Toro Rosso declined to explain those circumstances, but Motorsport.com learned that it was due to an issue with the power unit’s energy recovery system () which shortened the team’s filming day at Misano on Wednesday. The ERS problem was only present in one of Toro Rosso’s two hybrid engines, but was reportedly bad enough that Renault went to analyze the problem afterwards.
Renault power units have been the bane of the Red Bull-backed teams’ existence in recent years. Last year, the relationship between Red Bull’s primary team and Renault grew so acrimonious that Red Bull rebranded its Renault power unit as a “.”
There were rumblings that Toro Rosso follow suit with rebranding their power unit after switching from one-year-old Ferrari engines last year to new Renault power units for 2017. However, there haven’t been many mentions of what they’re calling the power unit for this year yet.
Either way, Toro Rosso was able to get enough footage on its filming day to release a short clip of the car in action (without showing much of the car itself) from before it broke:
Toro Rosso will their new car at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Man, don’t make us bring back the . The season hasn’t even started yet!