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Scuderia Toro Rosso

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Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for Red Bull Stable) is a Formula One racing team owned in a 50/50 partnership between the drinks company Red Bull and former F1 driver Gerhard Berger, and which made its racing debut in the 2006 Formula One season. Scuderia Toro Rosso is the sister team of Red Bull Racing competing with the aim of developing the skills of promising drivers for their senior team. Actually, to say that Toro Rosso is "competing" is overstating the case, not to mention that any driver, promising or not, would look dreadful in a Toro Rosso car. Toro Rosso is best summed up as a horrendous F1 team serving as a caddy for a mediocre one.

Toro Rosso (abbreviated name) was set up by Red Bull with the purchase of the Minardi team in late 2005. For the 2007 season, Toro Rosso will be using Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from. The team principal is Franz Tost, formerly of BMW's motorsport division. Tost is expected to commit suicide any day now, as he wonders why in the world he ever left a merely mediocre outfit like BMW Sauber to join this disgraceful outfit.

Origins

Minardi had competed in Formula One from 1985 to 2005 and although having a large fan base had latterly been one of the least competitive teams in the formula with a relatively restricted budget. 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.[1] Included in the terms of the deal with Red Bull the team must keep its headquarters in Faenza, Italy until at least the 2007 season. Of course, the team has become such an embarrassment that many in Faenza will be glad to help them back their bags anytime they want to leave.

Whilst Red Bull have abandoned the Minardi name in line with their own sponsorship and marketing plans, the use of the Italian language in the name is intended to hint at the team's Italian heritage. Toro Rosso's so-called Italian heritage would make Benito Mussolini proud. 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 then changed because squadra in Italian depicts a squad like a football team, to Scuderia Toro Rosso. Many Minardi fans were upset by this move, and over 15,000 signed an online petition to keep the Minardi name. The original owners of the Minardi name are grateful this didn't happen, mindful of how F1 legend Alain Prost sullied his great name when he started a team of his own. At least Minardi finished last because they were broke. Toro Rosso finishes last because they royally suck.

Racing history

2006 season

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed were the 2006 race drivers, with Neel Jani filling the test/third driver role. Liuzzi had raced part time for Red Bull Racing in 2005. Speed entered F1 following the Red Bull Driver Search in the United States. Jani was the test driver for Sauber Petronas in 2004. Both drivers have recently been bashed by Berger for allegedly poor performance, even though it is unlikely that even Berger's old friend Ayrton Senna, were he still living, could score a point in the Cuban taxi that Toro Rosso passes off as an F1 car. Toro Rosso's car is so bad that Speed has become known as Scott Slow in the paddock, and Liuzzi secretly wishes he could just go back to GP2, where he might even get a faster car.

File:Scott Speed Silverstone.jpg
Scott Speed limping around the track at Silverstone in April 2006 F1 season. A dejected Speed spent that evening checking to see if there were any openings in Champ Car.

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.

Vitantonio Liuzzi at the 2006 Canadian Grand Prix. Like Speed, Liuzzi is looking forward to being fired from his contract, so he can join Champ Car and have a chance.

The team used Minardi's contracted supply of rev limited and air restricted Cosworth 3.0l V10 engines. 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.[2] 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.

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 and balance the playing field Toro Rosso asked for an extra 500 revs for qualifying, however the FIA permitted them 300 revs only. Truth be told, Toro Rosso sucks so bad that the FIA should have given them 3,000 extra revs. They still would have finished last. Toro Rosso could use the turbo engines of the legendary McLaren MP4/4 and they still wouldn't win!

2007 season

Vitantonio Liuzzi driving for the team at the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix. On his lips, Liuzzi is saying "This is what MasterCard Lola must have been like."

For the 2007 season, Toro Rosso began using Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from. What Toro Rosso doesn't seem to realize is that Ferrari sold them castrated versions of the real Ferrari V8, while laughing all the way to the bank that Berger and Red Bull fell for it. Of course, even the A-spec Ferrari engine wouldn't be enough to get the car out of the realm of F1 suckitude. (Suckitude may not be a real word, but it's the best description of Scuderia Toro Rosso one can come up with.)

At the launch of the STR2 on 13 February, Gerhard Berger confirmed Liuzzi would again drive for the team in 2007.[3] In testing in Bahrain on 24 February, Scott Speed was confirmed as the team's second driver again. Test drivers are yet to be confirmed for the 2007 season.

The team announced their new technical director Giorgio Ascanelli, replacing temporary stand-in Alex Hitzinger on 2 April.[4] Ascanelli was obviously pretty desperate to work in F1, to take on a gig like this.

Future Plans

Giancarlo Minardi has stated that he intends on buying back Scuderia Toro Rosso from Red Bull. The plan is that Minardi Piquet Sports merges with Paul Stoddart's Minardi Team USA and Scuderia with the two main drivers being Vitantonio Liuzzi and Jarno Trulli with Gianmaria Bruni as the 1st test driver. Flavio Briatore will be team boss with Minardi being Team CEO. The Headquarters at Faenza will be rebuilt by Herzog & de Meuron with Dallara running the team for a while. Didier Perrin who currentley works for Dallara and Designer of the 2007 GP2 car will become Technical Director after the Dallara term. If this actually comes to pass, both the people of Faenza and everyone involved in F1 will scream with joy, as the biggest disgrace to hit F1 since the days of the Andrea Moda Formula team will be over at last!

Berger racently announced that Toro Rosso has given $1 million to a human cloning project, which is planning to clone Michael Schumacher so that he can drive for Toro Rosso in about 20 years. Not that it would make a difference in Berger's clunker cars.

Sponsorship

Sports sponsorship is a major part of Red Bull's innovative marketing strategy, and Scuderia Toro Rosso is not the first sports team to be bought and completely re-branded: it has done the same for Red Bull Racing (formerly Jaguar Racing), the Austrian football club Red Bull Salzburg (formerly SV Austria Salzburg), and MLS' Red Bull New York (previously Metrostars). It should be noted, however, that none of these teams suck like Toro Rosso does.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Points WCC
2006 STR1 Cosworth V10 M BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA CHN JPN BRA 1 9th
Vitantonio Liuzzi 11 11 Ret 14 Ret 15 10 13 13 8 13 10 Ret Ret 14 10 14 13
Scott Speed 13 Ret 9 15 11 Ret 13 Ret 10 Ret 10 12 11 13 13 14 18 11
2007 STR2 Ferrari V8 B AUS MAL BHR ESP MON CAN USA FRA GBR EUR HUN TUR ITA BEL JPN CHN BRA
Vitantonio Liuzzi 14 17 Ret Ret Ret Ret 17
Scott Speed Ret 14 Ret Ret 9 Ret 13
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scuderia Toro Rosso.

See Also


References

  1. ^ Irvine in talks over Minardi sale news.bbc.co.uk Retrieved 2 August 2006
  2. ^ Press Information - FIA Formula One World Championship October 22 2004 www.fia.com Retrieved 26 April 2006
  3. ^ "Liuzzi to race for Toro Rosso". GPUpdate.net. 2007-02-13. Retrieved 2007-02-13. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ "Toro Rosso appoint new technical director". Formula1.com. 2007-04-02. Retrieved 2007-04-02. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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