SEPTEMBER 27, 2006

Hitzinger gets dual Red Bull role

German engineer Alex Hitzinger has been appointed as the technical director of Scuderia Toro Rosso and at the same time has been named as the head of advanced technologies for Red Bull F1, a move that indicates that there is a convergence going on between the two teams which will create one single technical team in 2008 when chassis-sharing is legalised. Hitzinger is currently the head of development at Cosworth Racing.

The 34-year-old engineer started out in motorsport in 1997 with the Toyota rally team in Cologne before moving on to the Toyota F1 project. He was recruited by Cosworth in 2000 and became head of the company's rallying programme until 2004 when he was put in charge of F1 development.

The appointment means that Scuderia Toro Rosso is unlikely to get Maserati engineer Giorgio Ascanelli, who had been a target for the job.