Get to know the Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri F1 team — formerly known as Scuderia Toro Rosso — including drivers Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
Widely known as the little brother to Red Bull’s top-flight Formula 1 team, Red Bull Racing, Scuderia AlphaTauri (and its previous iteration branded as Scuderia Toro Rosso) have been owned and operated by the Austrian energy drink giant since 2006. It’s been a frequent proving ground for RBR’s “A team,” producing future phenoms like four-time world champ Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, and 2021 Driver’s Champion Max Verstappen.
The team originated in 1985 as middling outfit Minardi, which competed for 20 years with little success before rebooting itself as Scuderia Torro Rosso in 2005 after a sale to Red Bull GmbH. The energy drink titan rebranded the team prior to the 2020 F1 campaign to promote AlphaTauri, its in-house fashion label, kick-starting a new era that featured Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly in the drivers’ seats. After a brief stint with the A-team, Gasly returned to AlphaTauri, delivering its lone F1 win to date at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.
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In 2021, Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda joined via Formula 2, helping the organization to a sixth-place finish in the Constructor’s Championship.
Let’s get to know more about Scuderia AlphaTauri, shall we?
History of AlphaTauri in Formula 1
Founded: 2020
Previously known as: Torro Rosso, Minardi
Headquarters: Faenza, Italy
Owner: Red Bull GmbH
Key sponsors: Fantom, Rapid API, Honda, Epicor, Randstad, ICM.com, Ziba Foods, Pirelli, DAZN, Ravenol, Riedel, Siemens
Minardi had a rough go of it in Formula 1, posting exactly zero victories and a total of just 38 points between 1985 and 2005, never reaching a single podium. When owner Paul Stoddardt made the decision to sell, he received dozens of offers, with Red Bull GmbH ultimately winning out. Thus began the story of Scuderia Torro Rosso, with Scott Speed (what a motorsports name!) and Vitantonio Liuzzi kicking things off behind the wheel with Cosworth engines under the hood in 2006. They’d roll with Ferrari, Renault, and Honda engines over the years before adopting Red Bull’s powertrain.
Sebastian Vettel scored Torro Rosso’s one lone win and podium in 2008. He’d join Red Bull Racing the following year and go on to win fouir straight world championships from 2010 to ’13. In 2015, Vettel’s first campaign since departing for Ferrari, Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen became the youngest F1 driver in history when he debuted at 17 years old at the Australian Grand Prix.
As the talent pipeline to the A-team became increasingly clear, Toro Rosso formalized its organizational independence from Red Bull Racing in 2010 despite its common ownership. As team principal Franz Tost will gladly explain, the teams don’t have a junior-senior relationship — rather, they’re sisters. That paradigm played out before our eyes when, after a brief stint with the A-team in 2019, Pierre Gasly re-established himself with Toro Rosso and subsequently AlphaTauri.
Gasly delivered the team’s lone F1 win to date at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. Pairing him with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda for the 2021 season, the organization managed a No. 6 finish in the Constructor’s Championship that’s tied for its best position in the Red Bull era.
F1 AlphaTauri Drivers in 2022
Pierre Gasly
- No. 10 car
- Delivered AlphaTauri’s first Formula 1 victory at 2020 Italian GP
- First French F1 race winner since 1996
After finishing 15th in the Driver’s Championship in 2018, his first full year in Formula 1, Gasly has finished no worse than 10th, including a career-best No. 7 finish in 2019 when he split time between Toro Rosso and Red Bull. That year, he earned two of his three fastest lap honors to date, the latter as part of a career-best run of six straight points finishes.
Of course, nothing beats his history-making star turn in Monza at the 2020 Italian GP, where he fended off pole-winner Lewis Hamilton and eventual runner-up Carlos Sainz to become France’s first Grand Prix winner since Oliver Panis at Monaco in 24 years earlier.
Yuki Tsunoda
- No. 22 car
- Finished third in the 2020 Formula 2 world championship standings
- 2022’s youngest F1 driver
A veteran of both Formula 3 and Formula 2, Yuki Tsunoda’s experience on the track belies his 21 tender years. In fact, he’s the only driver on the grid this year who was born in the 2000s.
A native of Sagamihara, Japan, he came up through Honda’s talent development programs in his home country. That relationship got him in the door with Red Bull, which was racing Honda engines at the time, in 2018 as a member of their own driver development program. His career-best finish came at the end of the 2021 campaign in Abu Dhabi when he placed fourth. Right behind him in P5? Pierre Gasly.
AlphaTauri’s F1 Championships & Milestones
Numbers reflect results through the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
As Toro Rosso (2006-19)
Constructor’s Championships: 0
Driver’s Championships: 0
All-time Formula 1 wins: 1
F1 podiums: 3
F1 poles: 1
F1 fastest laps: 1
As AlphaTauri (since 2020)
Constructor’s Championships: 0
Driver’s Championships: 0
All-time Formula 1 wins: 1
F1 podiums: 2
F1 poles: 0
F1 fastest laps: 1
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