Toro Rosso believes its car is almost as good as the championship-leading Mercedes in high-speed corners this year.

The junior Red Bull team is currently seventh in the constructors' championship, but has failed to deliver on its potential at several rounds this season. Max Verstappen scored the team's best result of the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix a week ago with a fourth-place finish, but team principal Franz Tost believes his outfit has underperformed relative to the outright performance of its car.

"The aerodynamics is working very well and in some of the high speed corners it has been proved that the car is almost as good and sometimes even equal to the Mercedes," Tost said. "During these first ten races we have unfortunately left quite a few points behind due to reliability issues. If it wasn't for this, we would definitely be further up in the constructors' championship, but we continue to work hard with our partners to improve this and come back stronger in the second half of the season.

"We are all very motivated because sooner or later the good results will come. Max's 4th position in Hungary proves that we are working in the right direction. It's true that there have been mistakes on our side and there is certainly room for improvement in many areas."

Toro Rosso is currently eight points shy of its pre-season target of fifth place in the constructors' championship.

"At the beginning of the year I thought we might be in a position to challenge for a top five position in the constructors' championship, having seen the figures from the wind tunnel and also the results of testing. And now I still tend to think we can do it, especially after our strong result in Budapest, as there are now only 8 points separating us from the team that is P5."