SEPTEMBER 9, 2006

Renault and Toro Rosso

Vitantonio Liuzzi, German GP 2006 

 © The Cahier Archive

Seen visiting the Toro Rosso offices in Monza on Saturday night were two Renault engine men - and indication that we may be seeing the French V8 engines in the back of the Italian cars next year, leaving Red Bull Racing to spend another year with Ferraris. What is not clear is who is going to be designing the Toro Rosso as the design team down at Faenza is breaking up and its may be that a group of engineers in Milton Keynes have been designated as the Toro Rosso design team, separate from the Red Bull Racing design group. The rules state that one team cannot design a car for another in 2007 and so one must presume that some of the Red Bull engineers will be changing their contracts and will be working for Toro Rosso rather than Red Bull Racing. This is the only way in which such an arrangement would be acceptable to rival teams.

There are also whispers in the F1 paddock that Gerhard Berger is chasing after Giorgio Ascanelli, who worked with him during his F1 career, to take on the role of technical director of Toro Rosso. Ascanelli is currently the head of Maserati's competition department.