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Sebastian Vettel's very first stint with the Red Bull group was as a Torro Rosso driver. As it turns out, it was this stint that helped the team sustain itself in Formula 1.
Red Bull bought Minardi and rebranded it as Torro Rosso with the aim of using customer cars for the team. However, a change in regulations in 2009 meant that customer cars could not be used to run Torro Rosso.
The team was on shaky grounds and Red Bull was potentially looking for a buyer to find a way out of running the team. It was during this time that Vettel, then a Torro Rosso driver, turned around the fortunes of the team. The team, running an identical car to Red Bull Racing (the only difference being a Renault engine for Red Bull and a Ferrari engine for Torro Rosso) surprised everyone in 2008.
Sebastian Vettel outscored both Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and David Coulthard, won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, and helped Torro Rosso finish ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship.
As told by Franz Tost to The Race, this helped secure the fate of Torro Rosso. He said:
"Of course, success stabilizes. The team always comes together with a successful driver. It’s so important because 95% of the employees are motorsport or F1 enthusiasts and they understand it is something special to work there, but they also want to have the success, and the lift of the success."
He added:
"They work day and night, it doesn’t matter, if you have a successful driver they don’t care about this as such. Therefore, it’s important to bring home points, good results and if possible a victory. Once the people recognise how professional, how good Sebastian was, then they are motivated to do more for him. This was the case.”
Sebastian Vettel helped secure Torro Rosso's future
According to Franz Tost, it was Sebastian Vettel's stint with Torro Rosso in 2008 that helped the team reach some stable footing and hence gave Red Bull confidence that it had something to build on.
When questioned if Vettel's driving helped impact the future of the team, he said:
“You’re absolutely right. Success in F1 is the most important factor to keep everything together.”
Since then, Torro Rosso has grown from strength to strength, rebranded itself as AlphaTauri and has become an able midfield contender. The team had a disappointing 2022 F1 season and will be hoping to do better in 2023.
