Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso

Thursday 9th November 2006

The Scuderia Toro Rosso team is proof that in Formula One it's money that really counts.

And now with some cash being plugged into the team thanks to its senior team, Red Bull, STR is already taking leaps and bounds - by its standards - up the order.

Although STR began its F1 career as the Minardi outfit in 1985, it was purchased by Red Bull at end of the 2005 season with the intention of running it as their B-team. The team was also given a new name, Scuderia Toro Rosso.

STR entered the 2006 F1 season with an unproven line-up of Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed - both rookies with either little or not F1 experience. It was a gamble that paid off the team, who did what Minardi could do - score points.

However, their first point of the season, which came from Speed's eighth placed finish in Australia, was taken away from them after the American was deemed to have overtaken David Coulthard under waved yellow flags. It was a major disappointment for both the team and the driver who went back to battling the Midland and Super Aguris out on the race-track.

Not content with that, though, it wasn't long before STR set their sights on their sister team Red Bull. Armed with better reliability and also periodic moments of superior speed, STR spent a large part of the latter part of the season challenging the two Red Bull drivers - and at times getting the better of them.

Liuzzi even managed to bag the team's first official point of the year with an eighth place at the United States Grand Prix. And although it was the team's only point of the season, it did mean in one year STR had achieved more than Minardi had done in the previous three seasons.

With the old Minardi legacy now a thing of the past, and armed with Ferrari power, the Scuderia Toro Rosso team expected more improvement than what they actually achieved in 2007.

Too many retirements and crashes from Speed and Liuzzi marred the team's campaign with the low point coming at the European GP when both drivers spun off the track on the same corner and on the same lap in the wet.

The alleged physical altercation between Speed and team boss Franz Tost resulted in the American being axed from the team and BMW test driver Sebastian Vettel being called up to replace him.

Vettel's arrival sparked an upsurge in the team's performances as the German youngster pushed Liuzzi throughout the remaining seven grands prix, which saw Toro Rosso bag their first points of the season when both drivers finished in the top eight at the penultimate race. Vettel claimed fourth place, while Liuzzi finished P6 in the Japanese GP.

With Vettel partnering Champ Car Champion Sebastien Bourdais, the 2008 season proved to be a memorable one for the minnows. Bourdais kicked off life as an F1 driver with two points in the season opener in Australia while his more-fancied team-mate started the season with four consecutive DNFs.

However, once Vettel and Toro Ross got their act together they were pretty hard to stop. Their hard work finally paid off at the Monaco GP where Vettel finished fifth despite starting 19th on the grid.

The points started to roll in after that and their highlight in F1 to date came in Italy when Vettel snatched the team's first pole in treacherous conditions. The German went on to claim Toro Rosso's maiden victory to become F1's youngest-ever race winner. Vettel picked up a further 12 points in the remaining four races of the season to end a credible eighth in the Drivers' Championship with 35 points.

Team-mate Bourdais wasn't so successful and only added another seventh-place at the Belgium Grand Prix to his tally for the season. His four points meant Toro Rosso finished an impressive sixth in the Constructors' Championship - ahead of the likes of Williams, Honda and Red Bull.

Vettel's success, though, was always going to draw interest from competitors and it was sister team Red Bull who announced mid-way through the season that they have secured his signature for the next season. Vettel wasn't the only one to exit STR. Team manager Massimo Rivola left for Ferrari and was replaced by Gianfranco Fantuzzi.

Meanwhile, Gerhard Berger sold his stake in the team back to Red Bull while owner Dietrich Mateschitz announced that Toro Rosso are up for sale as the 2008 Concorde Agreement outlaws customer cars from 2010 onwards. The team, though, will continue in its present guise until the end of the 2009 season.

With Vettel's departure to Red Bull and Bourdais' less than impressive performances, the team's management decided to make both their race seats available for the 2009 season. Bourdais along with Red Bull test driver Sebastien Buemi and Takuma Sato were all given tests with the aim to choose two out of the three. However, the name of Jenson Button also popped up as a possible STR driver following the demise of Honda.

Buemi was the first to be confirmed as a Toro Rosso driver for the new season in early January, but the team decided to delay the announcement of the second driver.