Toro Rosso

**Scuderia Toro Rosso**, commonly known as **Toro Rosso** or by its abbreviation **STR**, was an Italian Formula 1.5 racing team. The Italian name "Toro Rosso" translates to "Red Bull". It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull, the other being Red Bull Racing. Toro Rosso functioned as a junior team to Red Bull Racing, with the aim of developing the skills of promising drivers for the senior team. The team made its racing début in the 2006 season, moving to complete independence from its sister team in 2010. The team changed its name to Scuderia AlphaTauri in 2020.

From 2007 to 2013, Toro Rosso used Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from at the end of 2006 to switch engine builders to Renault. For 2014, Toro Rosso switched to Renault engines as well, but in 2016 returned to using Ferrari power. However, they switched back to Renault in 2017 (albeit under 'Toro Rosso' branding), then in 2018 to Honda. The team principal was Franz Tost, formerly of BMW's motor sport division.

## Origins

Minardi had competed in Formula 1.5 from 1985 to 2005. Despite having a large fan base, it had been one of the least competitive teams in the sport.

Minardi owner Paul Stoddart claimed to have had 41 approaches to buy the team, but preferred to sell it to someone who could 'take it further' than he could and who would maintain it in its traditional base in Italy. Included in the terms of the deal with Red Bull GmbH was the clause that the team must keep its headquarters in Faenza, Italy until at least the 2007 season.

Whilst Red Bull abandoned the Minardi name in line with their own sponsorship and marketing plans, the use of the Italian language in the name was intended to hint at the team's Italian heritage. Red Bull changed the name of the team immediately after taking control of the team on 1 November 2005. It was initially reported as 'Squadra Toro Rosso' (*team Red Bull*) but then changed because *squadra* in Italian depicts a 'squad' like a football team, to 'Scuderia Toro Rosso'. *Scuderia* is Italian for a stable reserved for racing horses, and is also commonly applied to Italian motor racing teams, such as Ferrari.

Many Minardi fans were upset by the name change to Scuderia Toro Rosso and over 15,000 signed an online petition to keep the Minardi name, but were unsuccessful.

## History

### 2006

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed were the 2006 race drivers of the STR1, with Neel Jani filling the test/third driver role. Liuzzi had raced part-time for Red Bull Racing in 2005, while 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 2005-spec Cosworth TJ2005-2 3.0-litre V10 engines instead of newly-built Cosworth CA2006 2.4-litre V8 engines as CA2006 engines were too expensive for smaller teams. 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. 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. For tyre suppliers, Toro Rosso was reunited with Michelin tyres.

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 to balance the playing field, Toro Rosso asked for an extra 500 rpm for qualifying, however the FIA permitted them only 300 rpm.

### 2007

For the 2007 season, Toro Rosso began using the 2006-specification Ferrari 056 V8 engine rather than 2007 works spec due to cost reasons, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from by switching to Renault power.

At the launch of the STR2 on 13 February, Toro Rosso confirmed Liuzzi as a 2007 driver. In testing in Bahrain on 24 February, Scott Speed was confirmed as the team's second driver. Four-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais was an occasional test driver several times during the season.

The team appointed new technical director Giorgio Ascanelli to replace temporary stand-in Alex Hitzinger on 2 April.

The 2007 season was generally disappointing, with poor reliability and driver errors leading to a low finishing record. Following the European Grand Prix, Speed was dropped under controversial circumstances and was replaced by BMW Sauber development driver Sebastian Vettel who was later confirmed for 2008.

At the Chinese Grand Prix the team finished 1st and 3rd bringing home the team's first double podium.

With the 2008 Concorde Agreement outlawing customer cars from 2010 onwards, Dietrich Mateschitz put the Toro Rosso team up for sale in March 2008. He aimed to secure a buyer by the end of 2009, while the team continued in its present guise until then.

### 2008

Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers for 2008 were Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais. The team continue to utilize 2007-spec Ferrari engines in 2008.

The team pulled off a massive shock at the wet Italian Grand Prix, with Vettel claiming a first pole position and the first win for both himself and the team. This was the first win by a team based in Italy other than Ferrari since the 1957 German Grand Prix, which was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in a Maserati and also the first and only win for a Ferrari engine in a customer chassis. Vettel beat second-place Heikki Kovalainen by 12 seconds.

Vettel's performances earned him a place at the senior Red Bull team for 2009. In the end, Vettel scored 71 of the team's 97 points.

### 2009

With Vettel moving to Red Bull Racing replacing the retired David Coulthard, Sébastien Buemi and Sébastien Bourdais led the team's assault in the 2009 World Championship. After the previous year's success, several drivers wanted to drive for Toro Rosso, including Takuma Sato (who even did three tests with the team) and Bruno Senna. Toro Rosso unveiled their new car last of all the teams taking part in the 2009 season, on 9 March 2009. Before the season started, the team's boss Franz Tost said that it would be "difficult" to do as well as they did in the 2008 season. On 16 July 2009, the team announced that Sébastien Bourdais' contract was to be terminated with immediate effect due to disappointing results. On 20 July 2009, the team announced that Jaime Alguersuari would replace him as official driver for the rest of the season. Multiple WRC Champion Sébastien Loeb had been quoted in the French sports-paper L'Equipe as being interested in replacing Bourdais. It had been stated that Loeb would not be available to race in F1 until after the end of the WRC season.

### 2010

Scuderia Toro Rosso confirmed that they would keep Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, in the hope of achieving better results. On 10 November 2009, Toro Rosso announced that Sébastien Buemi would continue to race for them in 2010. No official announcement of the second driver had been made up to then, however Jaime Alguersuari was reported to take the second race seat, as published on 26 November 2009. On 22 January 2010, the team confirmed the signing of Alguersuari.

### 2011

Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were confirmed as drivers of the team's STR6 for 2011, Daniel Ricciardo would be the team's reserve and test driver, and would also take part in free practice at each of the Grands Prix. The STR6 was launched on 1 February in Valencia, Spain.

At the first round in Australia, Buemi scored a podium finish in second place, whilst Aguersuari would take his first podium of the season at the European Grand Prix which was also a 2nd place. Jamie would also go onto finish 2nd at the Italian Grand Prix behind only Michael Schumacher. His next podium was a race win at Korea with a last lap pass on Nico Rosberg. This was followed up by another third place finish at the next round.

Alguersuari finished the season on 142 points compared to Buemi on 124.

### 2012

On 14 December 2011, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne would drive for the team in 2012, replacing Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari. Team principal Franz Tost later stated that the team had the make-up of a "rookie training school", with the prospect of bringing new talent to the team.

On 6 September 2012, it was announced that James Key had joined the team as Technical Director, replacing Giorgio Ascanelli.

Despite some better results in the final races, Toro Rosso suffered a poor season which saw the team finish in fith place in the Constructors' Championship, only ahead of Caterham, Marussia and HRT.

### 2013

On 31 October 2012, it was confirmed that Toro Rosso would retain its drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne for the 2013 season.

The team finished fourth over the season, scoring 1 win at Canada and multiple other podiums.

Daniel Ricciardo was promoted to the senior team at Red Bull Racing for the following year.

### 2014

During the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix weekend it was announced Toro Rosso had signed a long-term agreement with Renault to use their engines from 2014. On 21 October 2013, it was announced that Jean-Éric Vergne would remain with the team for a third successive season, and will be partnered by Daniil Kvyat, who was a race-winner in the GP3 Series and the FIA European Formula 3 Championship in 2013.

One week prior to the Belgian Grand Prix, Toro Rosso announced the signing of then 16-year-old Max Verstappen to replace Vergne at the conclusion of the 2014 season to be partnered with Kvyat – meaning that Vergne would be without a seat with the team.

Toro Rosso finished the season fourth with 232 points.

### 2015

On 26 November 2014, Jean-Éric Vergne announced he would be leaving Toro Rosso after 3 seasons, and two days later, Toro Rosso confirmed that Carlos Sainz Jr. would partner Max Verstappen for the 2015 season.

During the 2015 season, Toro Rosso enjoyed unexpected success on the grid; the break-out of Max Verstappen combined with many points finishes along with multiple podiums. Verstappen scored 125 points to Sainz' 82.

### 2016

At the end of the 2015 season, after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it was announced that Toro Rosso would be reviving their partnership with Ferrari for the 2016 season, The only difference this time was that Toro Rosso would be provided with 2015 power units, as opposed to up-to-date 2016 power units used in previous seasons but without any direct factory support from Ferrari despite the partnership. Toro Rosso used Ferrari engines from 2007 through 2013 during the V8 normally-aspirated era. On 4 January 2016 it was announced that Toro Rosso would adopt a longer wheelbase for the all-new STR11 car due to the Ferrari 060 power unit and gearbox requiring a spacer to accommodate the MGU-K at the rear of the engine (similar to the Marussia MR03 which had a longer wheelbase: about 3,700 mm). After a controversial crash in Russia, Kvyat was brought back to Toro Rosso from Red Bull, with Max Verstappen taking his place.

### 2017

During the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix, it was announced that Scuderia Toro Rosso would be rekindling their engine partnership with Renault for 2017. The team retained Sainz and Kvyat as their drivers. Despite the Renault partnership, the team opted to utilize *Toro Rosso* branding on its engine.

On 26 September 2017, it was announced that Pierre Gasly would replace Kvyat for an unspecified number of races, beginning with the Malaysian Grand Prix. At the United States Grand Prix, Sainz moved to Renault for the remaining rounds of the season, ahead of his previously announced move for 2018, with Kvyat returning to the team. Gasly was absent in order to participate in the final round of the Japanese Super Formula Championship, so Brendon Hartley replaced him for this race. After the race, it was announced that Gasly would return to partner Hartley for the Mexican Grand Prix. After the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix, Helmut Marko said that Daniil Kvyat would not be returning to Toro Rosso and that the team would race with Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly for the remainder of the season.

### 2018

On 15 September 2017, it was announced that Toro Rosso would terminate Renault's remaining contract of customer engine partnership in order to sign the full-works Honda power unit partnership contract for 2018 onwards, after Honda had severed its ties with McLaren and thus Toro Rosso earned direct factory support from Honda as a flagship team. On the following day, the team confirmed that they would retain their final 2017 driver line-up into 2018, with Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley. During pre-season testing, many were surprised at the speed and reliability of the Honda engine, which had gained a poor reputation during the past three years with McLaren.

In the second race of the season Gasly, would win in a dominant form. Numerous reliability issues and poor luck plagued the team throughout the year, particularly for Hartley. He suffered a gearbox failure in China, the same race in which he and Gasly crashed at the hairpin on Lap 30. In Monaco whilst Hartley retired after Charles Leclerc collided into his rear after a brake failure. Hartley retired again in Canada when he was forced into a wall on the first lap by Lance Stroll. Gasly was again eliminated in a collision on the opening lap at his home race in France. Two consecutive retirements for Hartley followed, a hydraulics failure in Austria and a power unit failure in Britain. Hartley retired from the race in Italy after a first-lap collision, before both drivers suffered brake failures in Russia, coincidentally at almost exactly the same time.

Gasly scored 139 points over the season with two wins whilst Hartley scored 71. Overall, the team finished 6th, only ahead of Williams.

### 2019

Pierre Gasly was promoted to Red Bull for 2019. His replacement at Toro Rosso was Daniil Kvyat—re-hired by the team after he was previously dropped in 2017. Brendon Hartley was replaced by 2018 Formula 2 third-place finisher Alexander Albon. Kvyat suffered consecutive collision-related retirements in China and in Azerbaijan. At Monaco, Kvyat finished 2nd and Albon third to bring home a double podium for the Italian outfit.

Prior to the Belgian Grand Prix, Albon left the team after being promoted to Red Bull, replacing Gasly who returned to Toro Rosso. Gasly would go on to win with the Toro Rosso team at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Over the course of 2019, Toro Rosso only suffered a single reliability-related retirement, Kvyat's oil leak in Italy. This is in stark contrast to 2018, with seven such retirements. This consistency was rewarded as the team ended the season in 4th place in the championship.