Current AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso)

Toro Rosso

FIA Entry: Scuderia Toro Rosso
Car 18: Sebastien Buemi
Car 19: Jamie Alguersuari
Engine: Ferrari V8
Team Principa:l Franz Tost
Technical Director: Giorgi Ascanelli
Race Engineer Car 18: Riccardo Adami
Race Engineer Car 19:Andrea Landi

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2006
Races Entered 90
Race Wins 1
Pole Positions 1
Fastest Laps 0
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

The Beginning

Toro Rosso took over the Minardi entry in F1 in 2006. Minardi took part in 345 Grands Prix between 1985 and 2005 without a single win, podium, pole or fastest lap but were the starting point for double World Champion Fernando Alonso and race winners Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli.

Red Bull Takeover

At the end of 2005 current Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart sold the team to Red Bull to allow them to create a “Junior” team to bring new driver talent into F1. The Red Bull take over resulted in a change of name to Squadra Toro Rosso and then Scuderia Toro Rosso amidst much complaint from Minardi fans. For their first season in 2006 drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed used the STR1 chassis, which was essentially the Red Bull RB1 car. These were fitted with rev and air flow limited 3.0 litre Ford engines to allow Toro Rosso to compete in the new 2.4 litre formula in place for 2006.

Liuzzi scored a point for the team at the US Grand Prix, a race where only 9 cars finished. The development of the new engines by the other teams put Toro Rosso in a very uncompetitive position and they tended to qualify toward the back of the grid and run in those positions in the race.

Ferrari Customer

With the senior Red Bull team moving to Renault power for 2007 Toro Rosso picked up their Ferrari engine contract. Speed and Liuzzi continued as drivers. The STR2 proved unreliable and both drivers made mistakes during the year leading to speculation that they would be replaced. Speed eventually lost his seat to BMW test driver, and Red Bull junior driver, Sebastien Vettel. In changeable weather at the Chinese Grand Prix Vettel bought his car home 4th with Liuzzi 6th.

For 2008 Vettel was joined by reigning Champ Car Series winner Sebastien Bourdais as Liuzzi moved to Force India. Bourdais finished 7th at the opening race of the season in Australia and Vettel then took 4th in Monaco. As the season progressed Vettel in particular was a regular points scorer and in wet qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix put his car on pole. The rain continued into race day and Vettel went on to win the race becoming the youngest ever Grand Prix victor. More points finishes for Vettel in the final races of the season put Toro Rosso 6th in the Constructors Championship and earned him a place in the Red Bull senior team for 2009.

Sebastien Buemi joined Bourdais for 2009 and after the highs of 2008 the team came back down to earth in ’09. Bourdais was dismissed mid season due to poor race results and Jaime Alguersuari took his seat for the remainder of the season. The drivers managed a few low points finished but the team dropped to 10th in the Constructors Championship.

Buemi and Alguersuari continued for 2010 and again picked up some minor points placing’s, helped by the revised points scoring system for the season. The team finished 9th in the Constructors Championship but were the lowest placed of the established F1 teams.

2011

Toro Rosso continue with the same driver line up in 2011 and, with the STR6 car and Ferrari engines, hope they can move further up the grid.

 

[RasputinLives]

This slipped under the radar a bit, but both Toro drivers are being given a second year.

I don't think this was a big surprise I think it would have been harsh on both to not get a second year. Also Red Bull have started down this road so have got to hope that one of them shows the potential to move up to the main team in 2014 when Webber and Vettel leave.

Toro Rosso have apparently signed a deal with Renault for engines from 2014.

Interesting that Toro Rosso will be joining its big brother team on Renault engines but more interesting will be that this leaves Ferrari with a spare set of customer engines for someone to snap up. My sensible money is on Marussia but could we possibley see in 2014 a Mclaren Ferrari on the grid?

 

[Bill Boddy]

This should hep Toro Rosso in that they will not need to make any changes to the Red Bull design to accommodate a different engine. So will we be seeing four Newey designed cars sweeping all before them (using their flexible wings to remove the marbles) in future?

Surely the FIA must insist that Toro Rosso is sold to a company with no connection with Red Bull?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

If Marussia take on Ferrari engines does that leave HRT, who are up for sale, as the only remaining Cosworth powered team?

 

[The Artist.....]

ExtremeNinja - There's no guarantee that Cosworth will be on the grid in 2014 - with the move to the V6 turbos, Cosworth may not have the funding to build an engine that is anywhere near powerful enough...

Remember that the V8 that Marussia and HRT are currently racing is based on the architecture that Ford paid for back in the early 2000s....

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Well it's looking less and less likely, isn't it?

 

[Josh]

Bill Boddy Toro Rosso have to use their own designed cars now, don't they? I thought they couldn't use the RBR designs anymore...

 

[Bill Boddy]

Yes, yes, I believe that you are right. There is no RBR ip on the Toro Rossos.

But on the other hand I have been called naive.

 

[Josh]

Surely you're not suggesting the Toro Rosso's are "influenced" by the RBR

 

[Viscount]

Rumours that Force India may be taking over TR's Ferrari engines, probably helped along by the fact that Ferrari young driver Jules Bianchi is their test driver and a good candidate to replace Hulkenberg.

 

[RasputinLives]

Rumours that Force India may be taking over TR's Ferrari engines, probably helped along by the fact that Ferrari young driver Jules Bianchi is their test driver and a good candidate to replace Hulkenberg.

There are rumours that Force India won't be Force India for much longer as their owners finances go more and more down the toilet so I'm guessing we'll have to see who takes over before that one gets confirmed.

 

[Brogan]

Toro Rosso are switching to Renault engines next year.

I have also posted on the Marussia thread that they are changing to Ferrari.

 

[McZiderRed]

Will they be changing their name to Taureau Rouge..?

 

[Il_leone]

Brogan Not surprised as there can be a base comparison between the two chassis and the amount of money difference as well

What surprised me as I posted on another thread is Toro Rosso would be asked to stump for the engines whilst Red Bull supposedly are getting them free !

 

[Galahad]

It'll do them both good to have this decided nice and early.

 

[RasputinLives]

Vergne and Ricciardo are tied 3 all when it comes to race results and whilst looking handy on occassions I don't think either of them are impressing the socks off Red Bull.

I sort of get the feeling that next years Toro Rosso Renault will be driven by Felix Da Costa and Carlos Sainz JR.

 

[Fenderman]

Hmm, after some more race wins and a couple more championships each maybe, but next year? If their career stat's are anything to go by Da Costa has the edge over Sainz Jr. but, to me neither appear ready for F1. Granted F1 seems to be happy to have drivers of lesser proven ability and perhaps I expect too muc. The performance of some recent and perhaps "better qualified" F1 newbies should be teaching us something, which is that F1 is no place for anyone who is half-trained, partially proven and/or inexperienced

Certainly the newbies exploits can be entertaining to watch but they can also be downright dangerous. Vergne and Ricciardo are here now and have got some F1 under their belts so why replace them with a couple of guys who most will likely just replicate their marginal performance. It's got to be a headache for any team though, as there appears to be a lack of stand-out drivers in the main feeder series at the moment. So, okay, for me, drivers like Vettel, Hamilton, and Rosberg, etc, may perhaps have raised the bar for entrants into F1 but as the premier class that is how, IMHO, it should be.

 

[RasputinLives]

I see your logic Fenders but as they did the exact same thing when they swapped Buemi and Alguersauri for the current pair I think throwing their rookies in at the deep end is the way they work. Da Costa is already at reserve level and has the same amount of experience as both JEV and Ricciardo when they were brought in.

As for Sainz? how can they resist the publicity? if its not 2014 it'll bw 2015.

 

[Fenderman]

Yup, it's certainly not a new situation and Sebastian and Jaime are now elsewhere having, ahem, replicated their very average lower formulae careers with similar levels of achievement on F1. Come to think of it,,if a team deserves to be in F1 should their aspirations not be to have the best drivers it can get and to fight for championship wins? Brawn kicking ass in 2009 showed a midfield team could be turned into a winning one (even if only once so far ).

 

[RasputinLives]

They did bring in some kid from Renault 3.5 series with not much experience called Sebastian Vettel though and I think he did alright.

 

[Jos the Boss]

I still think they were wrong to ditch Jaime and Buemi