Get to know F1 Teams: Alpha Tauri/Toro Rosso

 Hello, this week I'm introducing Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri

Alpha Tauri is based in Faenza, Italy.

Alpha Tauri is the sister team (junior team) to Red Bull Racing.

Current team Members:

Advisor to Red Bull GmbH- Helmut Marko

Team Principal- Franz Tost

Team Manager- Graham Watson

Technical director- Jody Egginton

Drivers- Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda

Founder- Dietrich Mateschitz

History.

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 Feanza, 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.

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 who last time collaborated with Faenza-based Minardi Formula One team in 2001 and 2002 seasons.

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.

Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers for 2008 were Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien 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. 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 was at it again in the next race, the Singapore Grand Prix, Formula One's first ever night race. Vettel qualified 7th and finished the race in 5th, while Bourdais could only manage 12th. In the end, Vettel scored 35 of the team's 39 points, and in doing so, helped Toro Rosso to actually outperform their senior Red Bull team for the first and only time in team history.

On 14 December 2011, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne would drive for the team in 2012, replacing Sebastien 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. After scoring points in the opening two rounds, Toro Rosso could not manage to maintain that pace and failed to finish in the points until the 12th race of the season, the Belgian Grand Prix. 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 ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, only ahead of Caterham, Marussia and HRT.

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. At the Australian Grand Prix, Sainz qualified 8th while his teammate Max Verstappen qualified 12th. Sainz finished ninth and collected two points on his début while Verstappen retired due to his car suffering an engine failure. 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 two 4th places, both by Verstappen, ensured that Toro Rosso enjoyed their most successful season in Formula One based on points. Verstappen scored 49 points while his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr managed to score 18 points.

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 Kyvat 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.

Pierre Gasly was promoted to Red Bull for 2019. His replacement at Toro Rosso was Daniil Kyvat—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 finished 10th at the opening race in Australia, keeping Red Bull's newly promoted Gasly behind him for much of the race. Albon scored his first Formula One points with a 9th place in Bahrain, before finishing 10th in China after starting from the pit lane. Kvyat suffered consecutive collision-related retirements in China and in Azerbaijan. Toro Rosso recorded a double points-finish in Monaco, the first time the team had done so in over two years since the 2017 Spanish Grand. The team scored an excellent result at the rain-affected German Grand Prix, where clever strategy calls allowed Kvyat and Albon to finish 3rd and 6th respectively. This was Toro Rosso's first podium finish since their shock win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, and their best ever race result in terms of total points. Prior to the Belgian Grand Prix, Albon left the team after being promoted to Red Bull, replacing Gasly who returned to Toro Rosso. A number of consistent points-finishes followed, as the STR14 demonstrated its ability to fight at the front of the midfield. This included 7th and 9th in Belgium and 7th and 10th in Japan. At the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix, Toro Rosso claimed their third podium finish. Gasly took advantage of multiple incidents and held off Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in a drag race to the finish line to finish 2nd. In the final race, Danill Kvyat finished ninth to give the team their 500th point. 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 6th place in the championship with 85 points, their best ever points haul in the team's history.

In September 2019, Toro Rosso announced their intention to change their naming rights for the 2020 championship. It was announced on 1 December 2019 that the team had selected "AlphaTauri" as their new moniker to promote parent company Red Bull's fashion label of the same name by purchasing Toro Rosso's naming rights. Thus, they became Scuderia AlphaTauri and retired the Scuderia Toro Rosso moniker after fourteen years.

AlphaTauri had Daniil Kyvat and Pierre Gasly drive for them in their debut season. The team remained with the Honda engine, being the team's engine partner since the 2018 season. Sergio Sette Camara, Sebastien Buemi, and Juri Vip were signed as the team's test drivers. The team achieved its first podium finish and race victory under the AlphaTauri name at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, which also marked Pierre Gasly's first race victory and the first win for a French Formula 1 driver since Olivier Panis won the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix 24 years prior. AlphaTauri ended the year in 7th place on 107 points, 75 for Gasly and 32 for Kvyat.

For the 2021 season, AlphaTauri retained Gasly and signed Yuki Tsunoda to replace Kvyat. Gasly scored the team's first podium of the year by finishing in third place at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Gasly also consolidated this by finishing 4th at the Dutch and Mexico City Grands Prix. Tsunoda's best finish was 4th place at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Both drivers have been retained for the 2022 season. AlphaTauri will be using the Red Bull-branded Honda engines due to the former's subsequent takeover of the Honda engine programme due to Honda exiting Formula One at the conclusion of the 2021 season.