The ‘Toro Rosso Conundrum’
Toro Rosso and its owner, Red Bull, have come under an incredible amount of criticism after their signing of sixteen year old, Max Verstappen.
Critics of the decision to allow Verstappen to race at such a young age believe a teenager as young as the Dutchman is not mentally prepared for the stresses of Formula 1.
Whether this is true or not will have to wait to be seen next year.
What is known however, is that Verstappen has potential, he’ll be racing next year (he’ll be seventeen), and that this whole situation runs in accordance to Toro Rosso’s long running business plan.
Since its inauguration into Formula 1 in 2006, Scuderia Toro Rosso has been Red Bull Racing’s ‘B-Team’; its sole purpose, to give a race seat to up and coming drivers and drivers graduating from Red Bull’s Young Driver Program.
As such, Verstappen being promoted to a race seat should not come as a surprise to anyone as the signing of young drivers has been regular business at Toro Rosso throughout the years (it should be noted that current Toro Rosso driver, Daniil Kvyat, made his début with the team at nineteen years of age).
And with 2 out of 7 (14%) of their former drivers going on and winning multiple Grand Prix, you can’t say the system doesn’t work for some (especially when one of their former drivers is a four time consecutive world champion and another is the only driver this year to have won a race besides Mercedes).
However, Toro Rosso haven’t ever won a championship for themselves, and most likely never will. They train future champions but must accept that they will never be champions. It may be a sad existence for a Formula 1 team but that’s what happens when you’re owned by those who also own Red Bull Racing.
Being the ‘B-Team’ is ingrained into the identity of Toro Rosso, yet this ‘Toro Rosso Conundrum’ might be spreading.
Haas F1 Team will line up on the grid in 2016, powered by Ferrari engines.
A commercial tie-up between Haas F1 and Ferrari has been known since July, so Ferrari supplying engines to the new kid on the block came as no great surprise. However, what was interesting is what Ferrari chief Marco Matiacci had to say about Ferrari’s future relationship with Haas F1:
"While our objective is to reinforce our power unit development programme for all our customer teams, we believe this new partnership has the potential to evolve beyond the traditional role of supplying our power unit and all related technical services.We look forward to supporting Haas F1 Team in its efforts to become a competitive player on the Formula 1 grid."
Simply put, there’s more to this deal than Haas F1 basically buying and fitting a Ferrari engine.
This evolution beyond the traditional role of only supplying a power unit may be merely an attempt by the Scuderia to acquire a ‘B-Team’ of their own, because it is almost improbable that Ferrari would lend a helping hand for free with no gain for itself.
And why wouldn’t they want a ‘B-Team’, it’s clearly worked for Red Bull, as no doubt having a ‘B-Team’ has contributed somewhat to them having taken the past eight championships on offer.
Other wealthy teams will probably follow this line of thought too.
McLaren, for instance, will no doubt jump on the first midfielder or back-marker team that decides to be supplied with engines by Honda in 2016.
If this is truly the direction Formula 1 is heading, with the wealthier teams employing the lower to midfield teams as guinea pigs to test new parts and new drivers, the current team hierarchy may become stagnant.
Though the current status-quo allows for great racing among the top teams, the FIA have to be cautious that the midfield and back markers have room to move and improve, and are not hampered down by monetary incentives; this in turn, keeping the ‘Toro Rosso Conundrum’ from multiplying.