Scuderia Toro Rosso

Origins

Minardi had competed in Formula One from 1985 to 2005. Despite having a large fan base, it had been one of the least competitive teams in the sport, never achieving a podium finish and only finishing as high as fourth in three races.

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.

Racing history

Cosworth customer engines (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, with Toro Rosso inheriting the rights after Jaguar Racing was sold.

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 V8 naturally-aspirated engines were too expensive for smaller teams as well as transmission package from Red Bull Technology. 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 who had last supplied Faenza-based Minardi in the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

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.

Ferrari customer engines – first spell (2007–2013)

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 customer 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, Toro Rosso scored their best results, with Vettel finishing fourth and Vitantonio Liuzzi sixth, scoring eight points for the team. These were also the drivers' best finishes in Formula One to that point. It was a marked improvement over the preceding Japanese Grand Prix, where Vettel crashed into Mark Webber's Red Bull under safety car conditions while they were running second and third respectively, and Liuzzi lost a potential point after a 25-second penalty for overtaking Adrian Sutil's Spyker for eighth under waved yellow flags dropped him to ninth.

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.

Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers for 2008 were Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais. The team continue to utilize 2007-spec Ferrari engines in 2008. Bourdais earned his first career points with a 7th-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix. Vettel scored his first points of the season with a 5th-place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. The team showed steady improvement throughout the season, leading up to a solid performance at the Belgian Grand Prix which saw both cars running in the top six for most of the race, and with Bourdais and Vettel running 3rd and 4th respectively on the final lap until cars on tyres better suited to the extreme wet conditions passed them, demoting Vettel to 5th and Bourdais to 7th. The double points finish moved STR above Honda and level with Williams in the Constructors' Championship.

Renault customer engines – first spell (2014–2015)

Toro Rosso signed a long-term agreement with Renault to use their same-spec engines as it was used by Red Bull Racing, Lotus and Caterham teams from 2014. Unlike its sister team that usually received engines free of charge due to full-works partner basis, Toro Rosso's engine supply deal with Renault was on a customer basis, paying for its engines with a lease as well as limited factory support. 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.

The team made an impressive start at the Australian Grand Prix with Vergne qualifying 6th, Toro Rosso's best qualifying result since the 2013 British Grand Prix and Kvyat qualifying 8th. The drivers finished the race 8th and 9th respectively to score Toro Rosso's first points of the season, and his result, Kvyat had broken Sebastian Vettel's record as the youngest points scorer in Formula One history. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Vergne qualified 9th while Kvyat qualified 11th. The race was going well for them until on lap 18, Vergne suffered a power unit failure in his car, which has been a common occurrence in Renault powered cars at that point in the season. Meanwhile, Kvyat finished 10th and scored 1 point but was ultimately a lap down from the race winner.

At the Bahrain Grand Prix, both Vergne and Kvyat qualified well down the field in 13th and 14th; Kvyat finished 11th while Vergne retired due to a collision. At the next race in China, Vergne qualified 9th and Kvyat 13th, but Kvyat was able to score a point in 10th place. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Kvyat once again qualified 13th while Vergne started 16th. Kvyat finished 14th, a lap down from the race winner while Vergne retired from the race due to an exhaust problem. At the Monaco Grand Prix, both cars qualified in the top ten, as Vergne was seventh while Kvyat qualified in ninth. However, with exhaust ailments inflicting both cars, neither driver was able to finish the race. At the Canadian Grand Prix, Vergne started 8th while Kvyat qualified in 15th; Vergne finished where he started, while Kvyat retired due to a driveshaft failure.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Kvyat took his best qualifying position with 7th, while Vergne lined up from 15th position. The team suffered another double retirement, as Vergne retired due to an issue with his brakes, while Kvyat was sidelined with a suspension problem. At the British Grand Prix, both cars once again qualified in the top ten, with Kvyat ninth and Vergne tenth. For the first time since Australia, both drivers scored points, as both Kvyat and Vergne finished precisely where they started. At the German Grand Prix, Kvyat qualified eighth, five places ahead of his teammate. Vergne finished the race in 13th, while Kvyat retired from the race, after his car caught fire. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Vergne qualified 8th and Kvyat qualified 11th, with Vergne picking up 2 points for 9th position. Kvyat finished 14th, a lap down from race winner Daniel Ricciardo.

Ferrari customer engines – second spell (2016)

At the end of the 2015 season, after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it was announced that Toro Rosso would be reviving their customer 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 millimetres (150 in)). After a controversial crash in Russia, Kvyat was brought back to Toro Rosso from Red Bull, with Max Verstappen taking his place.

Renault customer engines – second spell (2017)

During the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix, it was announced that Scuderia Toro Rosso would be rekindling their customer 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 and thus no factory support.

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.

Honda works engines (2018–2019)

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. Thus, Toro Rosso earned direct factory support from Honda as a flagship team that included free engines for the first time in team's history. In addition, the Toro Rosso-Honda partnership also included Japanese Honda staff who would work at their Faenza base as well as official team vehicles and brand endorsements. 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. However, the first race in Australia was unspectacular, with Gasly retiring with an engine failure after qualifying in last place and Hartley finishing 15th. The following race in Bahrain would be far more successful, with Gasly starting 5th and finishing 4th in what would eventually become the team's best result of the season, albeit with Hartley suffering an incident-strewn race and being classified 17th.

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, but scored his first point in Formula One with 10th place in Azerbaijan. Gasly was eliminated by a heavy first-lap collision with Romain Grosjean in Spain, but finished a respectable 7th at the following race 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. He finished 10th in Germany, ending a four-race streak in which the team failed to score points. Two points finishes followed for Gasly, an impressive 6th place in Hungary and 9th place in Belgium. 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. Both drivers impressed in Japan, qualifying in 6th and 7th, but both would finish outside the points. Two more points finishes came before the end of the season, 9th place for Hartley in the United States—the best result of his career—and 10th place for Gasly in Mexico.

Sponsorship

Sports sponsorship is a major part of Red Bull's 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), German football club RB Leipzig (previously SSV Markranstädt), Austrian ice hockey team Red Bull Salzburg EC and MLS' Red Bull New York (previously Metrostars).

On 6 September 2011, the week before the Italian Grand Prix, the team confirmed that they had received a sizeable investment from Spanish petroleum group Cepsa (only sponsorship but not as de facto direct fuel and lubricant supplier) which ended after the 2015 season.

Between 2016 and 2019, Toro Rosso had an agreement with the Japanese watch manufacturer Casio (through its Edifice brand). In the 2019 season, the team secured Thai-based sponsors Moose Craft Cider and PTT Lubricants (only sponsorship but not de facto lubricant supplier) due to Alexander Albon's factor.

Racing record

For 2020 onwards, check the racing history of Scuderia AlphaTauri (2020-2023) and Racing Bulls (2024-)