Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 Team

The current Alpha Tauri team started out life in 1985 as battlers Minardi, making the Faenza squad the fourth oldest team on the grid behind Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. While never winning a race or finishing on the podium, the Minardi team was always respected in the F1 paddock. With the bigger teams known for winning – Minardi’s main theme across their time in F1 was giving promising young drivers their first taste of F1. Race winners and eventual World Champions began their careers at Minardi, including names such as Mark Webber, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and double World Champion Fernando Alonso. While Mark Webber’s 5th place on debut at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix was arguably Minardi’s most memorable moment in F1, the evergreen Pierluigi Martini managed a pair of 4th places as well as a front row start during his 103 races for the team. With Red Bull entering F1 for 2005, the following year saw them purchase Minardi as a junior team for their drivers, renaming the team Scuderia Toro Rosso from 2006 onwards. Under the Toro Rosso name, Red Bull juniors were given their “sink or swim” opportunity in Formula One, the team starting life with Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi. A solitary point in 2006 was followed by a switch to Ferrari engines for 2007, which saw more competitive results – and the beginning of the rise of Sebastian Vettel. Despite crashing out from a podium position in the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, Vettel’s talent shone through with a peak for the Italian squad in 2008 – Vettel taking their first pole, podium and win in the same race at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. 2008 was so successful for Toro Rosso that they finished 6th overall and ahead of senior team Red Bull in the Constructor’s Championship thanks to the heroics of Vettel. Following Vettel’s promotion to the senior team, the team never quite reached the highs of 2008, with moderate success over the next few seasons and somewhat of a revolving door of drivers. The 2012 season saw Daniel Ricciardo move to the Toro Rosso team after half a season with backmarkers HRT. The following eight seasons saw six drivers either graduate to the senior Red Bull team or earn competitive drives elsewhere on the grid – Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, Carlos Sainz Jnr, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, with only Sainz moving to a team unaffiliated with Red Bull. In Gasly and Kvyat’s cases, both drivers spent a short amount of time with Red Bull with moderate success before returning to Toro Rosso. Gasly and Kvyat brought a second and third podium to the team thanks to Kvyat’s 3rd place in Germany and Gasly’s drive to 2nd in the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2019, resulting in the team’s equal-best finish of 6th place in the Constructor’s Championship. 2020 saw a rebranding of the team – still affiliated with Red Bull – to fashion brand AlphaTauri. Gasly and Kvyat stayed with the team for 2020, the team returning to the winner’s circle thanks to Gasly’s emotional victory – again in Monza. Gasly remained at the team for a fifth season in 2021, partnered with Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda, with the former finishing on the podium in Baku. Tsunoda’s rookie season was highlighted by a strong race to 4th in the season finale at Abu Dhabi which allowed the team to again finish 6th in the Constructor’s and ensured the team stuck with both drivers for 2022. On-track performance waned somewhat for 2022, with no podiums and a quiet 9th in the Constructor’s and Gasly departing for the Alpine team after 96 races with the team. Tsunoda was retained for a third season in 2023, teaming up with Formula E and F2 champion Nyck de Vries.