Red Bull Technology

Red Bull Technology is a subsidiary of energy drink company Red Bull relating to auto racing. It is set-up by Red Bull to design, engineer and build the chassis for Red Bull's Formula One racing teams, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Among its employees, Red Bull Technology currently employs top aerodynamicist Adrian Newey, as well as Toro Rosso technical director Giorgio Ascanelli.

Controversy

Red Bull Technology is generally regarded as a loop-hole used by Red Bull to run two teams in with the same car, which otherwise is prohibited in Formula One. The rival Spyker team lodged complaints about this early in the F1|2007 season, as they are direct competitors with Toro Rosso. However, they were rebuffed by the racing sport ruling body, the FIA. [cite news |title=Spyker lodges protest against STR |url=http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=38841 |publisher=ITV-F1 |date=5 April, 2007 |accessdate=2007-10-19] [cite news |first=Jonathan |last=Noble |title=Stewards reject Spyker protest |url=http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57832 |publisher=Autosport.com |date=2007-04-06 |accessdate=2007-10-19 ]

The Williams team also complained about the cars being so similar.

Both Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso do not deny that they run what is fundamentally the same chassiscite news| title =F1 Teams threaten legal action against each other| publisher =bitsofnews.com| url =http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/4933/42/| date =2007-02-07| accessdate =2007-10-19] , but claim that things such as separate development programs, differing engines as well as the fact that the chassis is designed by neither team makes it legal. The two cars in question are the Scuderia Toro Rosso "STR2" and the Red Bull "RB3", with both teams claiming that each other own intellectual rights to the cars of their team.

Although the cars are virtually identical, with both sharing the famed quick-shift gearbox technology which debuted at the 2007 Spanish Grand Prix, the results of Toro Rosso, especially when considering the recent rise in performance of their sister team, have left a lot to be desired considering the hype surrounding their car earlier in the year as well as the controversy of the chassis's origins in Red Bull Technology.

As they use different engine packages, though, the engine mounting points are different.

References