AlphaTauri has already added its name to the list of winning constructors in F1 despite its relatively short history in the sport.
Continuing from where Toro Rosso left off, the team remains the proving ground for young Red Bull talent in F1, with current drivers Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda hoping to impress Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko at the parent team.
From the team's history as Minardi and Scuderia Toro Rosso, here is the story of Scuderia AlphaTauri.
The minnows of the grid, Minardi had humble origins in Italy. Making its debut in 1985 with a single-car entry driven by Pierluigi Martini and expanding to a two-car outfit in 1986, the team would finish only nine races before the beginning of 1988 with a best result of eighth.
Martini would score the first point for Minardi in Detroit in 1988, with further points finishes coming at the British, Portuguese and Australian Grand Prix the following year - Luis Perez-Sala also scoring in Britain for the team's first double-points finish.
In 1990, the team would start on the front row of the grid for a grand prix for the first and only time, thanks to Martini's qualifying efforts at Pheonix. A year later, two fourth-place finishes for Martini would provide Minardi with its best ever results, matched only by Christian Fittipaldi in 1993.
When financial troubles hit, the team merged with BMS Scuderia Italia to survive, with Martini once again providing points for the team.
Backing from Fondmetal assisted the team towards the end of the century, with the team remaining at the back. At the 1999 European Grand Prix, Marc Gene would score Minardi's first point since 1995 in a race famous for the team's other driver, Luca Badoer, breaking down from fourth in the closing stages, bursting into tears at the side of his stricken car.
The team gave Fernando Alonso his breakthrough in F1 in 2001, with Mark Webber getting his chance the following year. The Australian scored points on debut at his home race.
Zsolt Baumgartner would score his only point at the US Grand Prix in 2004, whilst Minardi's final points-scoring race would see both Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers finish in the points, albeit at the infamous six-car race at Indianapolis in 2005.
Becoming the 'junior project' for Red Bull Racing, who had joined F1 in place of Jaguar in 2005, Toro Rosso scored a point in its first season after taking over from Minardi courtesy of Vitantonio Liuzzi. The team remained at its Faenza home with the spirit of Minardi living on.
Unfortunately, the luck of Minardi continued too, until mid-2007 that is. The arrival of a young Sebastian Vettel breathed life into the team, with a fourth-place finish in China boosted by Liuzzi's sixth.
In 2008, the unthinkable would happen. At the Italian Grand Prix, Vettel qualified on pole before putting in a commanding performance in difficult conditions to take his and the team's first victory.
Ever since, the team has continued to churn talent, with names such as Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen all proving their talents at Toro Rosso.
With Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne, the team established itself as regular points scorers, while Verstappen secured a couple of fourth-place finishes to show off his potential.
Only one more podium would come under the Toro Rosso guise, with Daniil Kvyat taking advantage of changing conditions at the 2019 German Grand Prix. At the end of the season, Red Bull would rebrand the team as Scuderia AlphaTauri.
The team that shares a name with a fashion brand, Gasly and Kvyat scored consistent points in the first season in the navy and white car.
The Frenchman took a stunning victory at Monza to complete his own journey of redemption after being dropped from Red Bull in 2019.
The team challenged Ferrari for a top-six spot in the constructors' championship but didn't quite have the point-scoring ability of the fellow Italian outfit.
With Kvyat stepping aside for Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda in 2021, the future looked bright for the team and Red Bull when he scored on debut in Bahrain.
But whilst Tsunoda struggled for the rest of the season with incidents marring any speed he could find, Gasly was again one of the standout performers on the grid.
The Frenchman finished ninth in the drivers' standings and was regularly threatening the top eight despite a gulf in car performance.
Will 2022 provide further gains?
Car: Red Bull Powertrains |
Located:![]() |
Drivers: |
Team Boss: Franz Tost |
Technical chief: Jody Egginton |
Chassis: AT04 |
Races: 1985 |
Nickname(s): - |
full name: Scuderia AlphaTauri |
Founded: 1985 |
Championships: - |
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