Toro Rosso reveals STR10 ahead of Jerez test - MotorSportsTalk

Scuderia Toro Rosso has become the latest team to reveal its new car for the 2015 Formula 1 season, lifting the covers off the STR10 in Jerez today ahead of pre-season testing.

Rookie drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. were on hand to unveil the new car, which features a revised nose design from 2014.

“The launch of the new STR10 car today here in Jerez de la Frontera marks the start of a new and hopefully thrilling F1 season,” team principal Franz Tost said.

“The 2015 season is a new challenge for all of us. We’ve put a lot of work into the STR10 and we are convinced that we will have a successful year. Our objective is to finish fifth in the constructors championship and we are ready to do our best to achieve it.

“Our engine partner Renault has also worked very hard to come up with new modifications and I’m sure that our joint effort will give us a package which will certainly be very competitive. All in all, we have a much stronger team as well as a very competitive STR10 and fast drivers; it’s a great combination.”

However, technical director James Key has confirmed that the design that runs in testing will only be an interim one, with a number of updates set to be applied ahead of the first race of the year in Australia.

“The car is a real mix of very different approaches in some areas, while also refining and developing what we felt were some of the more solid philosophies of the 2014 car,” Key explained. “It will look quite different by the time we get to race one and we’ve got several very new ideas which have gone into it, which the team is exploring for the first time, which makes it an interesting project.

“We’ve pushed the limits of timing much more with STR10 than with passed cars and we’re dealing with it really well. We have a pretty aggressive plan for development. We’ll turn up to race one with a fundamentally different car to the one we run in testing.”

Verstappen’s rise to F1 has been a controversial one. He will smash the record for being the sport’s youngest ever driver in Australia, making his debut at the age of 17. However, Red Bull clearly believes that the son of ex-F1 driver Jos Verstappen has what it takes to race with the very best.

Sainz has been close to reaching F1 in the past, but only secured a seat with Toro Rosso following Sebastian Vettel’s decision to leave Red Bull, prompting Daniil Kvyat’s promotion. The Formula Renault 3.5 champion also has a famous racing father, with Carlos Sainz being a legend of the rally world.

The Red Bull junior team enters its tenth season of racing in 2015, having evolved from Minardi for the 2006 season. It has produced three full-time Red Bull drivers in that time, with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel being the most notable graduate. Vettel also claimed the team’s only race win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

With an all-rookie line-up, Toro Rosso’s hopes of breaking into the top five in 2015 may seem ambitious, but both Verstappen and Sainz have proven themselves in junior formulae. Should Renault fix the problems that blighted its engines in 2014, the team could yet put itself in the fight with the likes of Force India and McLaren this year.

The STR10 will get its first public test run at the start of pre-season testing in Jerez tomorrow, with Carlos Sainz Jr. getting behind the wheel before handing the reins over to Verstappen on Monday.

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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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