History of AlphaTauri F1 team

AlphaTauri will lineup for their second season on the Formula 1 grid in 2021, though the team’s lineage dates all the way back to 1985. Giancarlo Minardi founded the Minardi F1 Team out of Faenza, Italy and after racing in F2 for four years, took the team to the bright lights of Formula 1.

The team enjoyed little success on the track as their first driver, Pierluigi Martini, scored 16 of the 38 points scored from 1985 to 2005. Minardi managed just one front row start while their best finish was fourth on three occasions, though they maintained a passionate fanbase due to their accessibility, well-built cars given their small budget and a refusal to use pay-drivers.

Famous names such as Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella, Mark Webber, Alessandro Zanardi and Christian Fittapaldi all featured for the the team before being sold to Red Bull GmbH in 2005 by Paul Stoddart, who took over Minardi in 2001 with the team near collapse.

Although Minardi fans signed an online petition in an attempt to keep the name, Red Bull renamed the new team Scuderia Toro Rosso. The team’s initial purpose was to act as a stepping stone for Red Bull Academy drivers, with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed brought in as their first driver pairing.

Toro Rosso and Vettel shock the world

The team’s profile was given a significant boost when Sebastian Vettel burst onto the scene at the Italian Grand Prix in 2008. To the surprise of everyone watching, the young German took pole to become the youngest pole sitter at age 21 and 72 days. He followed that up a day later with a shock win ahead of McLaren’s Heikki Kovaleinen to become the youngest race winner, a record that has since been broken by Max Verstappen. It was also the first and only time a Ferrari engine has won in a customer chassis.

Toro Rosso finished the season with more points than Red Bull, the first and only time that’s happened. Vettel departed for the senior team in the offseason and the Scuderia has since become a mainstay in the mid to bottom of the field. Focus has been put on providing opportunities to young drivers as Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon have all featured for Toro Rosso before moving to Red Bull.

Red Bull opted for another rebranding in the lead-up to the 2020 season, changing the team name to Scuderia AlphaTauri in order to promote Red Bull’s fashion label of the same name. Just like in 2008, the team achieved a shock result at the Italian Grand Prix as Gasly gave the team its first victory ahead of former Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr. It marked the first time since Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 Australian Grand Prix for Lotus F1 that a team other than Ferrera, Mercedes or Red Bull had won a race.

Gasly has been retained for 2021 as the team looks to build on their seventh place finish in the constructors’ standings, though Kvyatt has been replaced by upstart Yuki Tsunoda, who starts as the youngest driver on the grid.