Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso, Fragile wings?

Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for team red bull) the team that replaced the struggling Minardi team. Whilst the team does not fill the back row like the old Italian minnows it hasn't exactly set the f1 world alight. And its future is at best confusing and at the time or writing this there could be a new driver line up by Hungary. Red Bull Racing on the other hand is starting to make progress finally getting to grips with its chassis and reliability but so far this year hasn't been the all out assault it hoped for. So can the teams beat their problems and one day fight at the front and can Toro Rosso take on and beat its parent team one day?

First though a little history of the two teams.

In the September of 2005 Paul Stoddart owner of Minardi F1 announced that he was selling his team to drinks giant Red Bull. After the Australian business had bought the team at the end of 2000 he had struggled to keep it afloat but he did his best and made the team a lot better than it was when he took over it. The odd thing was though Red Bull already had an F1 team itself. Red Bull Racing had bought out Jaguar at the end of 2004 and had a very strong first year in 2005 scoring points and coming 7th beating the likes of Sauber and Jordan. The new team would still be based at the defunct Minardi factory in Italy and the staff would be kept too. But why would they need a 2nd team? At the time the reason was for its young driver programme where the younger drivers could learn their trade and then eventually graduate to the main team. This plan must of had to change when Gerhard Berger brought 50% STR in early 2006.

The cost of running 2 teams in F1 can be mind blowing. For 2006 Super Aguri who finished last in the championship were estimated to of spent around $57 million The cost for Toro Rosso was near $75 million and Red Bull spent $252 million. That’s a lot of money to spend and not get much in the area of results. David Coulthard did get the teams first podium in Monaco but it was a poor year for Red Bull racing. The first year for Toro Rosso seemed to get the headlines for the wrong reasons. Firstly they had decided to go for a v10 rev limited engine. This annoyed the rest of the teams as they had to run v8s and the only reason there was a loop hole for the v10 to be used was to help the struggling Minardi team who couldn't afford to spend money on a new engine. As Minardi no longer existed and STR could clearly look after themselves financially it was felt this went against the good will nature of the rest of the teams. Secondly was the fact that the new car the STR1 looked a lot like the RB1 from 2005 with chassis sharing not allowed in f1 they managed to argue that the car was actually the old jaguar design and as the team no longer existed this made there car legal. There was also an embarrassing moment in Australia when Scott Speed lost his debut point after passing David Coulthards Red Bull under yellow flags. Speed also fined for swearing at the officials when called to explain himself. But 2006 was a year to forget for Red Bull. The RB2 chassis was a poor car which had problems from day one with cooling the new Ferrari engine. In fact the press realize for the final test with the car read “There was a definite feeling of relief when Tonio Liuzzi cut the engine as he came into the pit lane, it sign end of a working life for a less than loved RB2 car” Red Bull were 7th but with only 16 points compared to 34 in 2005. STR 9th with 1 point. 2006 wasn't all bad however as Red Bull had managed to acquire the services of top aero genius Adrian Newey to design the 2007 challenger. Which is where Newey spent most of his resources on wasting little time trying to fix the 06 car.

Before 2007 though there were more unwanted headlines in the press. Originally Red Bull had wanted Ferrari engines for its main team in 2006. It was announced at Imola in 2005 that they were to replace the current Cosworth units they were using. Cosworth were unimpressed as there negotiators were waiting at the airport to fly out to the race to discuss a deal for 2006/07. When Newey arrived mid 2006 he didn't want Ferrari but Renault engines instead having worked with Renault units at Williams in the 90's and winning many titles with them. So they went ahead and did a deal with Renault to supply engines but they had to negotiate with Ferrari's team manager Jean Todt to supply Toro Rosso with engines instead of Red Bull. Ferrari did not like this as they believed they had a deal to supply Red Bull only and not to be passed to the B team. In the end Red Bull got what they wanted and Toro Rosso had Ferrari v8 power Red Bull had Renault. Then there is the chassis sharing issue. Both the RB3 and STR2 are designed by Adrian Newey. This has upset the majority of the other teams with Williams and Spyker who stand the most to loose. So far this issue is unresolved but Red Bull argues that the cars are different mainly because the cars are made by Red Bull Technology an independent design company not Red Bull Racing. This matter is still unresolved.

Which brings to my thoughts after Nurgburgring...

The problem is however that the chassis row is detracting from the main point of both teams right now. While Red Bull is making progress now it must be feeling a slight bit of disappointment. Adrian Newey was brought in for a strong 07 title campaign and regular podiums and to go for wins. I personally find it odd that how the team spent a lot of 2006 basically saying "next year" and then at the start of the season say they are 6 weeks behind schedule. The reliability has been very poor too with at least 1 car retiring in most races. Nurburgring how ever saw there best results in there short history with 3rd and 5th. So maybe the tide has turned and the 2nd half of the season will be a lot stronger then again maybe not only time will tell.

In more trouble however is Toro Rosso i’m not sure that there current drivers Speed and Liuzzi will still be racing by the time you read this, Team boss Franz Tost has said he wants rid of both drivers right now. Who to replace them with though? After all this was suppose to be the training ground for Red Bulls young driver programme but where are they? The programme seems to of sunk without a trace and there's rumor going round that Ralf Schumacher may join the team next season. And Ralf hasn't exactly moved Toyota up the grid in fact its generally agreed that Ralf has failed to grasp this years Bridgestone tire being blown away by his teammate Trulli in the first half of the season who in turn has not really been too strong ether. I believe what the team need is a experienced driver with good technical feed back in order to help set the car up and next to him he should have a fast young challenger. And to me the options they are rumored to be looking at right now are not in that light at all. Triple Champ car champion Sebastien Bourdais who is a good driver but there is that Champ car F1 crossover where top IRL or Champ Car drivers have moved into F1 and not performed to how they or team bosses and fans were expecting. Alex Zanardi, Cristiano da Matta and Michael Andretti for instance they may be good drivers but for one reason or another just don't adapt to F1. Not what Toro Rosso would want. Other names in the rumor mill include 19 year old Sebastian Vetted who covered for Kubica at this years Usgp. Now this may be a good choice but I believe it still means they need an experienced but fast hand to help the rookie and the team. Someone like Pedro De La Rosa or Alex Wurz they sadly for Toro Rosso are currently staying with there respective teams. So maybe a driver who has worked with poor and world championship cars, Someone who could be out of a team whether they like it or not at the end of this season. Step forward Giancarlo Fisichella. I think that this would be the best choice right now for the team. I feel that Flavio Briatore will put Nelson Piquet Jr. In the Renault no.2 seat next to Kovalainen. Fisichella's chances of winning a world title now are slim at best he failed to capitalize on having the best car in 05/06 but I do feel he has another season left in him and it would be best used to help Toro Rosso. And also help someone like Vettel.

Also hurting Toro Rosso I believe is the lack of technical depth in the team. Now thats not a criticism as the guys there understand an F1car and its behavior a 1000 time more than I ever will, but even Red Bull themselves admitted its taken time for them to start understand the complexity of a Newey designed car. So I think this makes things a lot harder for the B team who have been used to running old Minardi and ex Jaguar/Red Bull chassis. The str2 is an entirely different beast from what there used to and with the current driver problems. Ether way for a car thats identical to the RB3 its a long way behind where it could be. Its also Red Bull that has been getting all the key technical staff and big names from Renault and Williams etc. But i’m sure Co-owner Gerhard Burger has it covered and if the driver situation sorts itself out the whole team may gel and move forward.

One more point is the engine situation. While it would be harsh to describe Ferrari engines as hand me downs from the parent company no team has truly succeeded with customer Ferrari engines. Sauber never won a race with them it didn't help Prost rise up the ranks and Spyker are plump last on the grid with them. While these teams didn't get where they wanted for more reasons than just the engine it seems that it didn't help them as much as you would think Ferrari power would. Possibly repairing relations with cosworth whose v8 was a strong unit would help or maybe even Gerhard could some how use his old connections with BMW and have a v8 from them in the back. This would mean sorting the ongoing chassis sharing problem out however as BMW Motorsport boss Mario Theissen is against the idea.

After Hungary...

Well I guess Torro Rosso know something I don’t then. The decision was to delay this going up in light of the Mclaren court fight (See a title decided in court) And in that time Torro Rosso departed with Speed no real surprises there, They then confirmed the rumors and replaced him with Vettel who will also drive the 08 season for them as well. They also confirmed Sebastien Bourdais for next year too, which leaves Liuzzi out in the cold and probably out of F1. So the team will start next year with a very inexperienced (in F1) line up. For me there is also the question of how a champ car driver will cope in F1. Bourdais has said the team has “Potential” It will still be hard for him to go from a top team in champ car to a back of the mid-field team. The effect on his motivation if things don’t go well will be a hard one. The team also isn’t the happiest place right now, the fall out with Speed which apparently led to a spot of rough handling from team principal Franz Tost after Nurburgring. Whether that story is true or not it is obvious the team were unhappy with the performance of there drivers and saying as much in the press. If the 08 drivers don’t perform there is little doubt things will go the same way.

Back to this season and Hungary was a bump back to earth for Red Bull both cars finishing out of the points after starting in the top 10. Coulthard has secured a drive for Red Bull for next year and Webber who he will partner again But there is rumor that Webber is already showing signs of being fed up like he was at Williams and Coulthards deal is for 08 only. To me that says “There is no one else around so we’ll hang on to you for now”, Not a good sign for Coulthard but as the oldest driver on the grid he has accepted he's got more races behind than there are ahead.

Hungary also caused more confusion for me as the team seemed to go backwards from Nurburgring. With the mid field being so tight it doesn’t take much for the field to get switched around and points then lost. The trouble is 2007 was suppose to be an all out assault, regular points and podiums. It has not happened as planned. The teams reliability gremlins have cost them points easily and that is a major point where they will have to work on. After all its B team isn’t going to just sit there behind them if they can beat them they will.

Now while or should I say if Toro Rosso start to make improvements this in turn will push Red Bull to after all it doesn't want to be beaten by it B team that is on less than a third of its budget (see Honda - Super Aguri). And there lies a problem which Red Bull has got itself into. Its even harder now that Gerhard Burger owns part of Toro Rosso no one is going to buy 50% of anything and allow it to move over for another team. Gerhard has said he wants to take the fight to Red Bull and hopefully once its current problems are sorted it will.

One final thing to end on though. I personally am a little confused by some of RBR's actions. As I have already mentioned the young driver programme doesn't seem to exist right now its almost ironic that the Coulthard Webber pairing is the oldest combined age on the current grid and what happened to one of Red Bulls original aims? And the fact they now have Vettel from Bmw and Bourdais from champ car means was that money wasted? They have supported many drivers in the lower ranks in F3000 and formula BMW but it seems to fizzle out once it gets to F1 surely the intended aim for such a programme? Also that they were to put the "fun" back into F1. From what I can see from a fans side not much. There Energy Station (motor home to us mere mortals but 3 floors high and quite impressive until you see Mclaren and Ferrari's new for 07 palaces!) is for VIPs only. They have a magazine "The Red Bulletin" but that’s only available in the paddock. So all in all it doesn't seem that too much has happened as regarding putting "fun" back in F1. The picture of yourself on the car charity thing they did was a nice thing although not exactly changed F1 ether. Now of course we know it’s a serious business but i'm sorry maybe I was expecting too much. But then again did we misunderstand that the fun part was better parties for the sponsors and VIPs in that energy station...