Toro Rosso is the second of two teams owned by Red Bull; the team’s name is Italian for “Team Red Bull”. Toro Rosso is used as a sister team to Red Bull Racing. Being used to develop driver’s and technology for its senior team.
Toro Rosso was formed after Red Bull’s owner Dietrich Mateshitz and former FORMULA ONE driver Gerhard Berger purchased the Minardi team in 2005; Red Bull was to take full control of the team after buying Berger out in 2008.
Minardi, one of the minnows of FORMULA ONE, had struggled to compete with a limited budget since its creation in 1985. Owner Paul Stoddart was determined to sell the team to someone who would improve the team’s fortunes and take them further than he himself had been able to.
After an unremarkable 2006 season, in which Toro Rosso’s struggled to even qualify. The team were supplied with Ferrari engines in 2007. This was made possible after Red Bull Racing switched to Renault engine’s allowing a pre-existing contract with Ferrari to be moved to Toro Rosso. Despite this, the early part of the 2007 season was again a disappointment with the car suffering from reliability problems. Later in the season the team would start to improve scoring a fourth and sixth place at the Chinese GRAND PRIX.
2008 was to be a story of gradual but steady improvement by the team, with their cars consistently running within the points. Then, at a horrendously rainy Italian GRAND PRIX, Toro Rosso pulled off the biggest shock of the year when a 21 year old Sebastian Vettel not only qualified on pole position but went on to win the race for the team; their first ever victory (and of note Toro Rosso scored their first victory before the senior team Red Bull Racing).
(After a race of rain it lighten's for Vettel to take 1st win of his career in italy)
The 2009 season saw Sebastian Vettel move to Red Bull; fulfilling Toro Rosso’s role in developing new driver’s for its sister team. The team again showed promise. With its driver’s consistently scoring points throughout the season. The year was also marked by a change in driver, as Sebastian Bourdais contract was terminated, the seat being filled by rookie driver Jaime Alguersuari.
Toro Rosso will expect their driver’s to show consistency and long term potential. They expect to remain ahead of the new teams.
Reference: 2010 F1 game(has a surprising amount of information about all Formula 1 teams)
