Drivers: Jaime Alguersuari | Sebastien Bourdais

Website: www.scuderiatororosso.com

Sebastian Vettel’s victory from pole at Monza last year was an astounding result for a Toro Rosso team that still has its roots in much-loved minnow Minardi.

The staff who endured many years of back-of-the-grid frustration before the team was purchased by Red Bull probably never imagined their car would be pulling away from McLarens and Ferraris in the Italian Grand Prix.

Helped by a superior Ferrari engine, in the second half of the season Toro Rosso regularly overshadowed its big brother Red Bull Racing and beat it to sixth in the championship standings.

But last year’s heroics might prove to have been STR’s high point.

Co-owner Gerhard Berger sold his share back to Red Bull at the end of the season, feeling the small team had achieved the most it was likely to, and was now set to fall back.

Its future remains uncertain, with Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz in no hurry to sell STR, but also adamant that his company cannot afford two independent constructor squads.

So far Toro Rosso has benefited from using Red Bull-derived chassis, but that arrangement is set to be outlawed in the near future.

Vettel has also left, with GP2 graduate Sebastien Buemi taking his place alongside Sebastien Bourdais for what is expected to be a much more low-key season from the Faenza-based squad.


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 young 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 much greater results than its shoestring 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.

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott 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.

It took time for STR’s 2008 season to get going, but once it got its hands on Red Bull’s latest chassis, its form rocketed.

Soon Vettel was a regular points finisher, with a string of increasingly impressive performances building up to the ecstasy of Monza.