|
 |
| Base: |
Faenza, Italy |
|
| Drivers: |
S Bourdais |
|
S Vettel |
|
| Test Drivers: |
|
|
|
| Chassis: |
|
| Engine: |
Ferrari |
| Tyres: |
Bridgestone Potenza |
| First Season: |
2006 |
| World Championships: |
0 |
| Highest race finish: |
4th |
| Pole Positions: |
0 |
| Fastest Laps: |
0 |
|
History
Having been surrounded by controversy and question marks for much of its first two seasons, Toro Rosso finally has some direction and momentum going into 2008.
It ended 2007 strongly, and with rising star Sebastian Vettel and Champ Car ace Sebastien Bourdais on board for the new season, it has plenty of talent and ambition in its driver line-up.
The future isn't entirely rosy, however.
With the tide now turning against customer cars in Formula 1, STR's practice of using modified Red Bull designs is set to come under scrutiny yet again.
Its status as Red Bull's junior off-shoot also places an inevitable limit on its potential, for however strong Toro Rosso might become, the parent team will always take precedence.
For example it will start this season with its 2007 chassis, as it will not get access to the latest car until the European rounds.
Toro Rosso remains one of the smallest teams in the paddock, and its Minardi origins are still obvious.
It took time to get grips with last year's machine simply because the Adrian Newey-designed STR2 was too complex for a team of Toro Rosso's limited resources.
But by the end of the season STR was making rapid progress.
Only Vettel's error while preparing for a restart denied the team a podium in Japan, and he atoned with a superb fourth in China.
Even in the dry Toro Rosso proved was knocking on the door of the top ten by the end of 2007.
Having been underwhelmed by Red Bull choices Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed, STR's experienced bosses Franz Tost and Gerhard Berger now have the driver line-up they wanted.
Toro Rosso may be Red Bull's second-string team, but they are determined to show that it needn't be a second-rate operation.
F1 track record
When Red Bull found itself with an abundance of talented young protégés in 2005, founder Dietrich Mateschitz took the unusual step of buying Minardi to create a junior team for them.
This was entirely appropriate given Minardi's record of nurturing long talent.
The tiny Italian squad may never have won a race or even scored a podium during its two decades in F1, but it regularly achieved far greater results than its tight budget should have permitted.
It also provided a springboard for drivers like Alessandro Nannini, Jarno Trulli, Mark Webber – and most notably Fernando Alonso – early in their careers.
Liuzzi and Speed were duly installed at the renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso (the Italian translation of Team Red Bull).
The team controversially retained Minardi's supply of Cosworth V10 engines, even though the rest of the field switched to V8s.
But its irked rivals had little cause for concern, as the new generation V8 outperformed the restricted V10s and Toro Rosso scored just one point in its debut season before switching to Ferrari V8s for 2007.
STR's second year began in similarly underwhelming fashion, before improving sharply as it began a more independent development programme.
When Vettel, who had replaced Speed mid-season, and Liuzzi took fourth and seventh at Shanghai, it was a clear sign that Toro Rosso was on the way to establishing itself in F1 in its own right.
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