Gerhard Berger, a former Formula One racer and Red Bull, had built up Scuderia Toro Rosso, a team in the Formula One Championship.
Scuderia Toro Rosso Team is the B team of Red Bull Racing Team. Once the racers develop their skills by being a member of the Scuderia Toro Rosso, they can shift to the Red Bull Racing Team. The principal of Toro Rosso is Franz Tost, who had been in BMW previously.
Based in Faenza in Italy, the technical director of the team is Giorgio Ascanelli. The drivers of the team of Scuderia Toro Rosso are Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel. The team has a contract with Ferrari and according to this contract; all the cars of the team would be having Ferrari V8 Engines for the seasons of 2007 as well as 2008. The official tyre sponsor of the team is Bridgestone.
The latest car of the team, STR2, which is designed by Adrian Newey, has strong similarities with the Red Bull RB3. This is because both STR2 and RB3 were designed by the same individual.
History
Scuderia Toro Rosso was initially known as Minardi, which was less popular and less competitive as a team. Paul Stoddart, the owner of Minardi being unable to maintain the team due to restricted budget, had sold it to the Red Bull on the 1st of November in 2005. After the change in ownership, the name was changed, but the Italian touch was kept to signify that the team had an Italian base.
In its first season, i.e. in 2006, Scuderia Toro Rosso had Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi as the drivers. The test driver of the team for that season was Neel Jani. Liuzzi had been a part time racer for the Red Bull Racing team in the year 2005. Neel had been Sauber Petronas’ test driver for the season of 2004.
The changes brought in due to the transfer in ownership were not very pleasing for the fans of the team. A large number of fans were against the change of the team’s name. About 15,000 of them had made written petition, which went in vein.
Scores
In its first season in 2006, Scuderia Toro Rosso had scored 1 point with securing the 8th position in the United States Grand Prix. It also made it to the 9th position in the best World Constructors’ Championship. In 2007, the team secured the 4th and 6th position in the Chinese Grand Prix. With a total of 8 points, it also became the 7th World Constructors’ Champion.
Scuderia Toro Rosso is a very newly formed team, which is making its way to the top. Though the team had origins from another team, it has made great changes in the last few years.
