Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for Red Bull Stable) is a Formula One racing team owned in a 50/50 partnership between the drinks company Red Bull and former racer Gerhard Berger, and which made its racing debut in 2006. The team principal is Franz Tost, formerly of BMW's motorsport division.
The team was set up by Red Bull with the purchase of the Minardi team and will have to keep its headquarter in Faenza, Italy until at least the 2007 season - a condition imposed by former Minardi boss Paul Stoddart at the time of the deal. Scuderia Toro Rosso will compete in Formula One as the Red Bull Racing's sister team with the aim of developing the skills of promising drivers. For the 2007 season Toro Rosso will be using Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from.
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. 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.[2] 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 will be using Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from.
At the launch of the STR2 on 13 February, Gerhard Berger confirmed Liuzzi will again drive for the team in 2007.[3]
In testing in Bahrain on 24 February, Scott Speed was confirmed as the team's second driver again
Test drivers are yet to be confirmed for the 2007 season.
