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Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: Scuderia Toro Rosso

February 27th, 2006

1st annual linksheaven.com

formula 1 preview - 2006

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Team

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Nationality

Austria / Italy

Engine

Cosworth V10

Tires

Bridgestone

Team Principal

Franz Tost / Gerhard Berger?

Team Website

http://www.scuderiatororosso.com/

Sponsors

Red Bull

2005 Results

Driver’s	19th
Constructors	10th

Drivers

Driver

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Nationality

Italy

2005 Results

24th

Website

Driver

Scott Speed

Nationality

United States

2005 Results

3rd GP2 Series

Website

www.scottspeed.com

test

Driver

Neel Jani

Nationality

Switzerland

2005 Results

7th / GP2 Series

Website

www.neel-jani.com

2006 Outlook

Some will say, that a little piece of Formula One died the day Squadra/Scuderia Toro Rosso came into existence. Not because the team formed, but because it was created when Red Bull decided they wanted a junior team, and bought out the last true little guy in the sport, Minardi. In the last few weeks, former F1 star pilot Gerhard Berger bought 50% of the team, and with his color and the teams still relatively small budget, some of the spirit of the privateer does live on.
On the technical side, STR is a bit of a nightmare, the chassis has a lot of new ideas no doubt from the increased technical staff brought in after the buyout, and honestly, in testing, the team on the whole has shown some real competitive nature out there and some good performance, however how much performance they really have we won’t know until the season gets going if ever.
Last season, there was an agreement struck by the teams and the FIA, that teams in then Minardi’s situation, would be allowed to run a restricted version of the 2005 3 Liter V10 engine this season, despite the change to a 2.4L V8 engine formula for the rest of the grid. The politics are long and aggrevating, but in the end, STR was allowed to continue on with this rule after the buyout, and the are running essentially last years’ Red Bull Cosworth engine, detuned to what the FIA says is “competitive” but there is an ongoing debate as to where that level should be and it can be changed at any time, so in many ways we may never know exactly where the STR chassis and package is compared to everyone else on a level field, this may make some interesting following during the year, but it casts shadows over what the team can hope to accomplish.
Apart from being excited about where they will sit on the grid, their 2 drivers have the potential to be very good this year, especially Vitantonio Liuzzi. In Liuzzi we have one of the best karters ever. This doesn’t always equate to great F1 driver, but he sure has buckets of ability, and last year he wasn’t given the chance to show us exactly what he can do. He came into F1, much like Massa, touted as a future Ferrari man, so no pressure there then !! He didn’t do too good in qualifying for Red Bull last year but you may have noticed that he did equal DC in finishes 2-2. He has good race craft and this year at STR should hold him in good stead and give us a better idea of exactly how much of that kart ability he can bring to the table. Now only the Americans could come up with a name like ‘Speed’ for a racing driver, but we are assured it is his real name. He has shown plenty of his surname in GP2 and won the Red Bull driver search in America. Indeed so impressed were Red Bull with him and his fellow winners that they saw fit to close the programme altogether as a “job done” “mission accomplished”. There wasn’t enough teams in F1 to give him a go, and Christian Klien was undumpable after his season last year so what did the billionaire Mateshitz do ? He bought Minardi, renamed it and made it his own. We have no real gauge of how well these drivers will do, and with the uniqueness of their engine situation we have no real idea where the car will be, so in many ways STR are the greatest enigma on the grid. If the car fails is it the cars fault or the drivers ? Only time will tell, but I think this will be one of the more controversial and contentious teams this year. 
A late season development is the sale of 50% of STR to former F1 driver and BMW motosports overlord Gerhard Berger.

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Linksheaven 2006 F1 Preview: Scuderia Toro Rosso

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