Scuderia Toro Rosso

F1 team
Constructor_name = flagicon|Italy Toro Rosso-Ferrari
Long_name = Scuderia Toro Rosso

Base = Faenza, Italy
Principal = flagicon|Austria Franz Tost
Director = flagicon|Italy Giorgio Ascanelli
Drivers = 14. flagicon|France Sébastien Bourdais 15. flagicon|Germany Sebastian Vettel
Test_drivers = 37. flagicon|New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Chassis = Toro Rosso STR3
Engine = Ferrari 056
Tyres = Bridgestone
Debut = 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix
Final = 2008 Italian Grand Prix
Races = 49
Cons_champ = 0
Drivers_champ = 0
Wins = 1
Poles = 1
Fastest_laps = 0
Last_season = 2007
Last_position = 7th (8 points)

Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for "Team Red Bull") is a Formula One racing team owned in a 50/50 partnership between the drinks company Red Bull and former F1 driver Gerhard Berger. It made its racing debut in the 2006 Formula One season, after Paul Stoddart sold his remaining interest in the Minardi team at the end of 2005. Scuderia Toro Rosso is the sister team of Red Bull Racing, with the aim of developing the skills of promising drivers for the senior team.

Vitantonio Liuzzi scored the team's first point in its first season at the 2006 United States Grand Prix. The team's first pole position and victory were scored by Sebastian Vettel at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

For the 2007 and 2008 seasons, Toro Rosso uses Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from at the end of 2006. The team principal is Franz Tost, formerly of BMW's motor sport division. Its latest car, the STR3 is nearly identical to the Red Bull RB4, and both were designed by Adrian Newey.

The team's set 2008 driver lineup is Sebastian Vettel, third driver for BMW Sauber in 2006 before switching to a race seat at Toro Rosso midway through the 2007 season, and Sébastien Bourdais, the four-time winner of the Champcar World Series.

Origins

Minardi had competed in Formula One from 1985 to 2005. Despite having a large fan base, they had been one of the least competitive teams in the sport, due to a relatively restricted budget. Owner Paul Stoddart claimed to have had 41 approaches to buy the team, but preferred to sell it to someone who could 'take it further' than he could and who would maintain it in its traditional base in Italy. [Irvine in talks over Minardi sale [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/4210108.stm news.bbc.co.uk] Retrieved 2 August 2006] Included in the terms of the deal with Red Bull was the clause that the team must keep its headquarters in Faenza, Italy until at least the 2007 season.

Whilst Red Bull have abandoned the Minardi name in line with their own sponsorship and marketing plans, the use of the Italian language in the name is intended to hint at the team's Italian heritage. Red Bull changed the name of the team immediately after taking control of the team on 1 November 2005. It was initially reported as 'Squadra Toro Rosso' but then changed because 'squadra' in Italian depicts a 'squad' like a football team, to 'Scuderia Toro Rosso'. Many Minardi fans were upset by this move, and over 15,000 signed an online petition to keep the Minardi name.

Racing history

2006 season

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed were the 2006 race drivers, with Neel Jani filling the test/third driver role. Liuzzi had raced part time for Red Bull Racing in 2005, while Speed entered F1 following the Red Bull Driver Search in the United States. Jani was the test driver for Sauber Petronas in 2004.

The 2006 chassis was a modified version of the 2005 Red Bull Racing RB1. Some teams felt that this infringed the Concorde Agreement as each team is expected to design their own car. Toro Rosso claim that this design was originally produced during 2004 by Jaguar Racing, Red Bull's predecessor, and that the intellectual rights had belonged to the Ford Motor Company, Jaguar Racing's parent company before passing to Toro Rosso.

The team used Minardi's contracted supply of rev limited and air restricted Cosworth 3.0l V10 engines. This concession had been granted to assist less well funded teams by avoiding the cost of sourcing a new supply of V8 engines as required by the 2006 regulations. ["Press Information - FIA Formula One World Championship October 22 2004" [http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/836492838__22_10_2004_F1_article_7.5.pdf www.fia.com] Retrieved 26 April 2006] The continuation of this arrangement after the Red Bull takeover caused friction with other teams, in particular Super Aguri and Midland who felt that the engine conferred too much of an advantage. They contended that the concession to allow the team use a V10 engine was based on Minardi's poor financial situation, and should not have continued to apply after the team achieved a completely different financial footing.

As the season progressed, the Toro Rossos began to struggle in qualifying as their competitors developed their new V8 engines to rev closer to 20,000 rpm to get more power. To try and balance the playing field Toro Rosso asked for an extra 500 revs for qualifying, however the FIA permitted them 300 revs only.

2007 season

For the 2007 season, Toro Rosso began using the Ferrari 056 V8 engine, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from by switching to Renault power.

At the launch of the STR2 on 13 February, Gerhard Berger confirmed Liuzzi as a 2007 driver.cite news | first = | last = | author = | coauthors =| url = http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/02/13/liuzzi_to_race_for_toro_rosso/ | title = Liuzzi to race for Toro Rosso | work = | publisher = GPUpdate.net | pages = | page = | date = 2007-02-13 | accessdate =2007-02-13] In testing in Bahrain on 24 February, Scott Speed was confirmed as the team's second driver. Three-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais was unofficial test driver several times during the season.

The team appointed new technical director Giorgio Ascanelli to replace temporary stand-in Alex Hitzinger on 2 April.cite news | first = | last = | author = | coauthors =| url = http://www.formula1.com/news/5860.html | title = Toro Rosso appoint new technical director | work = | publisher = Formula1.com | pages = | page = | date = 2007-04-02 | accessdate =2007-04-02]

The 2007 season was generally disappointing, with poor reliability and driver errors leading to a low finishing record. Following the European Grand Prix, Speed was dropped under controversial circumstances and was replaced by BMW Sauber development driver Sebastian Vettel who was later confirmed for F1|2008. [cite news| title =Vettel to race for Toro Rosso in 2008| publisher =autosport.com| url =http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/61270| date =2007-08-02| accessdate =2007-08-02]

At the Chinese Grand Prix the Toro Rosso scored their best results, with Vettel finishing fourth and Vitantonio Liuzzi sixth, scoring eight points for the team. These were also the drivers' best finishes in Formula One. It was a marked improvement over the preceding Japanese Grand Prix, where Vettel crashed into Mark Webber's Red Bull under safety car conditions while they were running second and third respectively, and Liuzzi lost a potential point after a 25-second penalty for overtaking Adrian Sutil's Spyker for eighth under waved yellow flags dropped him to ninth.

2008 season

Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers for 2008 are Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais. Bourdais earned his first points in Formula 1 with a 7th place finish at the Australian Grand Prix. Vettel scored his first points with the team with a 5th place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. The team showed steady improvement throughout the season, leading up to a solid performance at the Belgian Grand Prix which saw both cars running in the top six for most of the race, and with Bourdais and Vettel running 3rd and 4th respectively on the final lap until cars on tires better suited to the extreme wet conditions passed them, demoting Vettel to 5th and Bourdais to 7th. The double points finish moved STR above Honda and level with Williams in the Constructor's Championship. The team pulled off a massive shock at the wet Italian Grand Prix, with Vettel claiming a first pole position and the first win for himself and the team. This was the first win by a team based in Italy other than Ferrari since the 1957 German Grand Prix, which was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in a Maserati. [" [http://f1.fr.reuters.com/teams/t9/news/BAN529784.php Vettel Is Formula One's Youngest Winner] " Reuters (15 September 2008) Retrieved on 16 September 2008.]

Long-term future

With the 2008 Concorde Agreement outlawing customer cars from F1|2010 onwards, Dietrich Mateschitz has put the Toro Rosso team up for sale. He is aiming to secure a buyer by the end of F1|2009, with the team continuing in its present guise until then. No deal will be completed before the end of the 2008 season. [cite news| title =Toro Rosso team put up for sale. . | publisher =autosport.com| url =http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/65874| date =2007-03-18| accessdate =2007-03-18] The team's 2009 driver line-up is also unconfirmed, with Vettel moving to Red Bull Racing for 2009 [cite news| title =Vettel confirmed at Red Bull for 2009| publisher =autosport.com| url =http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69187| date =2008-07-17| accessdate =2008-07-17] . It is rumored that Takuma Sato, [cite news| title =Takuma Sato and Toro Rosso a good fit for 2009| publisher =auto123.com| url =http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/other/f1-takuma-sato-and-toro-rosso-a-good-fit-for-2009-report?artid=100199| date =2008-08-11| accessdate =2008-08-11] Sebastien Buemi, Bruno Senna and current driver Sebastien Bourdais are all in contention for drives with the team in 2009.

ponsorship

Sports sponsorship is a major part of Red Bull's innovative marketing strategy, and Scuderia Toro Rosso is not the first sports team to be bought and completely re-branded: it has done the same for Red Bull Racing (formerly Jaguar Racing), the Austrian football club Red Bull Salzburg (formerly "SV Austria Salzburg"), Austrian Ice Hockey team Red Bull Salzburg EC and MLS' Red Bull New York (previously "Metrostars").

Complete Formula One results

() (results in bold indicate pole position)≠The driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified, as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
* Season in progress

References

External links

* [http://www.scuderiatororosso.com/ Official Site]
* [http://www.redbullf1.com/ Red Bull F1 Portal]
* [http://pics.redbullf1.com Official Picture Website]