Owned by Austrian drinks firm Red Bull and former F1 racer Gerhard Berger, Scuderia Toro Rosso hit the circuit in 2006 as a new team formed from what was the Minardi team. Under the ownership of first Giancarlo Minardi and then later Paul Stoddart, Minardi competed in F1 for 21 years and was never a contender for race wins or titles, but did attain almost cult status amongst its many fans.

Red Bull announced at the 2005 Belgian Grand Prix that it was to purchase the Minardi team and duly took control of the team on November 1st. Franz Tost arrived from BMW to run the team while Red Bull made clear that the team was to remain Italian-based and is to be run independently of its Red Bull Racing team.

On the driving front American racer Scott Speed and former F3000 Champion Tonio Liuzzi were announced as the teams race drivers GP2 racer Neel Jani graduating to the test role.

The first Toro Rosso design was a remarkable resemblance to the 2005 Red Bull designed RB1. With a rev-restricted 3.0 litre Cosworth V10, the team put in a solid season and late in the season managed to out-race and out-qualify the Red Bull Ferrari team.

With little experience on the driving front, there were plenty of spins which cost the team throughout the season, but both Speed and Liuzzi did a solid job. Speed looked all set to score the team its first championship point in Australia, only to lose his eighth position after being found guilty of passing David Coulthard under yellow flags.

The outspoken American then got himself into trouble with the Stewards after he and Coulthard had a heated post race disagreement. The first point came at the US Grand Prix courtesy of Liuzzi who took the chequered flag in eighth position. That one point was enough to move the team eighth in the constructors' standings at the end of their debut season.

The team took Ferrari V8 power for 2007 and initially retained both Liuzzi and Speed. However, it was not a happy season for the squad.

Speed's confirmation came just weeks before the start of the new season and from the outset it was clear that tensions between the American, Berger and team boss Franz Tost were at best cordial. Speed would compete in the first ten Grand Prix of the year, culminating in an early exit from the rain-hit European Grand Prix. Details of the aftermath have never been properly verified, but Tost and Speed had words and perhaps more and that was the end of Red Bull's protégé in Formula One.

Liuzzi had a solid season with the team, but he too was out of favour with the squad. The Italian finished sixth in the Chinese Grand Prix, but it was Speed's replacement Sebastian Vettel who shined in the second half of the season.

Prior to crashing into the back of Mark Webber's Red Bull whilst behind the safety car in Japan, Vettel was on target for a stunning podium position. Following the heartbreak at Fuji Speedway, Vettel scored a fourth position in China, very much undoing his error in the previous round.

Vettel has been retained for the 2008 season and is joined by Champ Car star Sebastien Bourdais. It is a strong partnership that should yield further improvements. The team will start the season with a development version of the STR2, before getting its hands on the latest Red Bull technologies design later in the season.