15/02/2018
NEWS STORY
This time last year, Red Bull made much fun of the fact that its 2017 contender was to be designated the RB13.
To the accompaniment of the Stevie Wonder classic Superstition, the Austrian team showed images of all manner of icons associated with the number that triggers triskaidekaphobes the world over.
Black cats, broken mirrors, ladders and upturned salt cellars were all shown as the team showed its contempt for such out-dated nonsense.
Sadly, as Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will tell you, the team went on to suffer an alarming number of DNFs, the pair finishing just 67.5% of the races they started and completing 72% of the season's racing laps.
A year later, and sister team Toro Rosso does not appear to have learned from Red Bull's mistake.
Following a successful fire-up at the Faenza factory on Wednesday, the team issued a tweet gently mocking those doom-mongers and naysayers who remain convinced that Honda - Toro Rosso's new engine partner - will ever get on top of the hybrid formula and that it will all end in tears.
Aware that the watching world is waiting for it all to go wrong, the Faenza team tweeted a jokey Q&A (pictured) aimed at putting all the doubting Thomas', Fernandos and Stoffs out of their misery.
With the Honda-engined Faenza contender to be designated the STR13, one cannot help but feel that Toro Rosso has not learned from history and is pushing its luck.
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