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.

 

[Il_leone]

soccerman17 that would give them 3 votes in order to agree on any regulation changes and plus they can also get Renault to follow their direction for the turbo engines

Given Caterham's position I dont think they will say no

 

[soccerman17]

The only way its not overkill is if Red Bull wants to take over F1. Caterham wouldn't say no but Red Bull would be crazy to propose it. Which they probably are.

 

[Il_leone]

soccerman17 Caterham are in dire straits and there is nothing in the regulations about owning another team as long as the chassis is different and Helmut can promote more academy drivers to f1

 

[soccerman17]

I understand the reasoning and legality Il_leone it is just financially absurd

 

[Bill Boddy]

So is Red Bull.

 

[Il_leone]

Caterham need Red Bull's assistance at the moment so this will be a second Toro Rosso team

 

[Brogan]

Scuderia Toro Rosso is pleased to announce that Carlos Sainz will join the team with immediate effect.
It means that our driver line-up for the 2015 season is now established as Max Verstappen and Carlo Sainz.

 

[teabagyokel]

Great. cider_and_toast won't have a clue how many flagons them two deserve.

 

[cider_and_toast]

They're not old enought to drink are they ??
We'll have to wait until the end of next season to see how many flagoons they deserve but then again, I seem to be in a very small minority who rate JEV.

 

[Il_leone]

Report: Honda could supply Toro Rosso in 2016 | F1 Fansite

I expected more to be posted about Toro Rosso on here but this could make sense since Honda are based in Milton Keynes where Red Bull are . If the engines work then Red Bull may want them in the future

 

[Bill Boddy]

RBR are only interested in an engine which it is guaranteed to have a strong chance of winning. As was said yesterday morning on the Beeb coverage, RBR is a marketing tool for a company which has no attachment to F1. All the other teams on the grid, with the possible exception of Mercedes are there because they want to go motor racing.

 

[Dash Racing]

This was briefly touched on by the NBC commentators. Their thoughts boiled down to: No matter which engine Red Bull takes, it could still be a problem for Toro Rosso, since Ferrari and Mercedes might have problems supplying engines to that many teams, and Red Bull will want the most competitive engine it can get - assuming they can close a deal with Ferrari, who they were supposedly courting, that still leaves Toro Rosso with a problem, and chances are that if they can get an engine deal, the only choice that won't be supplying tons of engines is Honda. Poor Toro Rosso.

 

[Il_leone]

That is what I thought because surely Ferrari or Mercedes will not be allowed to supply more than 4 teams on the grid . Mercedes do not want to supply Toro Rosso knowing full well somehow Red Bull will work the contract so they get the engines

I do think Toro Rosso may well end up with Honda

 

[Brogan]

No Honda engine deal for Toro Rosso.

Honda rules out Toro Rosso engine deal

 

[Il_leone]

I think that Toro Rosso may have to get Ferrari 2015 engines whilst Red Bull get 2016 engines

 

[Il_leone]

I think it is ludicrous for Honda not to supply engines to 2nd team to get some money and also get a try benchmark of the engines and chassis

But history does show Honda tend to really muddle itself when it tries to supply two teams the same engines

 

[sushifiesta]

I think it would be reasonable for F1 to require that manufacturers supply at least one customer team unless they can prove they don't have the capacity to do so.

Edit: In fact I have a feeling this might already be the case and the FIA could probably force Honda to supply engines if it's the only way to keep Toro Rosso in the sport. The same could be said for Renault, though.

 

[Il_leone]

My thinking will be that both Sauber and Toro Rosso will not be using Ferrari engines. There is a stipulation that Honda must be open to supply engines to other teams in 2016

 

[Bill Boddy]

A match made in heaven - Horner and Honda. Please, please.

 

[P1]

Despite all this engine hype, I think people forget that Toro Rosso and red bull already have an engine contract with Renault next year. And Carlos Ghosn has said that while they do not wish to be an engine supplier, they will honor existing contracts.

So I only see a switch to ferrari power or sticking with renault power. Only an idiot would go to Honda power.