Racing Bulls' 5 greatest moments in Formula 1

Martini challenges for pole

Minardi was the perennial underdog through its 20-year stint in F1. The team’s plucky attitude made it a fan-favourite, buoyed by its passionate Italian roots, an eye for young driver talent and an approachable nature. In all the team entered 346 races between the 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix but ultimately scored just 38 points during two decades in the sport. 

Pierluigi Martini became synonymous with Minardi during those early years. During three spells at the team, he went on to score the team’s first ever Championship point at the 1988 Detroit Grand Prix, a race that had only nine finishers, Martini being the sixth.

But a real first mark of success came five years later, again in the US, but this time at the Phoenix Street Circuit in Arizona. Rain on Saturday meant that qualifying for the 1990 United States Grand Prix would be decided by times from the Friday session. 

Cars running the superior Pirelli tyres dominated those running Goodyears and Martini, running on the former, put his Minardi second on the grid, missing out on pole by less than seven hundredths of a second and outqualifying the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost. Martini went on to finish seventh in the race, but Minardi would never again hit such heights in qualifying.

Webber’s debut delight on home soil

Minardi garnered a reputation as a breeding ground for talent throughout its time in F1. Its list of alumni includes double World Champion Fernando Alonso and Grand Prix winners such as Alessandro Nannini, Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber. Webber arrived in F1 in 2002, joining Minardi as Alonso’s replacement, and he made his debut at his home Grand Prix in Australia.

Albert Park was hit by a deluge of rain halfway through the qualifying session, where Webber could only manage 18^th on the grid. Things were even more dramatic on Sunday, a dramatic crash at the first corner took out most of the field and further attrition meant only eight made it to the chequered flag.

Webber was one of them, placing fifth, while team-mate Alex Young also survived the chaos to take seventh. Webber’s two-point haul was met like a win by the home crowd — an impromptu podium celebration took place that unlikely not even a £50,000 FIA fine could tarnish. They were precious points for Minardi, too, the only ones it would collect all season long.  

Vettel secures the first victory

When Minardi was sold in 2005, energy drink maker Red Bull spotted an opportunity to set up a feeder team for Red Bull Racing, and a deal was struck in November that year for it to become the team’s new owners. Minardi was renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso, but not before besotted fans unsuccessfully petitioned to save the Minardi name from extinction.

Early seasons yielded little in the way of success, but the team began to show an upwards trajectory. Drivers Sébastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel were charged with improving Toro Rosso’s fortunes in 2008. Future four-time World Champion Vettel would make his first mark on F1 this year at the Italian Grand Prix, Toro Rosso’s home race. After taking a maiden pole position at Monza, Vettel built a strong lead in heavy rain ahead of his nearest challenger Heikki Kovalainen. 

He eventually took the chequered flag more than 12 seconds clear to become the sport’s youngest-ever Grand Prix winner and finally add the Minardi lineage to the list of race-winning constructors. Embarrassingly for Red Bull, Toro Rosso finished ten points ahead of the supposedly superior Red Bull team at the end of the season, and Vettel was promoted to the main outfit for 2009.

Verstappen makes his first piece of history

As Toro Rosso's position as a junior team became more established in the 2010s, it became the proving ground for a host of future Red Bull drivers. The 2015 season marked the F1 debuts for Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen, who became the youngest driver to compete in F1 when he pulled onto the starting grid of the Australian Grand Prix at the tender age of 17.

Though he retired from that first race with engine troubles, Verstappen quickly proved that age was no barrier. He scored two fourth place finishes that year, at Hungary and the US to rack up an impressive 49-point season tally. Verstappen only completed one full season with Toro Rosso, driving in four Grands Prix for the team in 2016 before being promoted to Red Bull, where he swiftly became the sport’s youngest ever Grand Prix winner.  

Gasly becomes a Grand Prix winner

The Toro Rosso name was dropped at the end of the 2019 season in favour of promoting Red Bull’s fashion brand, AlphaTauri. Pierre Gasly had been with the team in its previous form since 2017 until he was promoted to Red Bull in 2019. With the increasingly imposing Verstappen as his team-mate, Gasly couldn’t hit the mark, having scored less than half the points Verstappen had after 12 rounds, and was demoted back to the junior team.

With something extra to prove, Gasly scored points in five out of the remaining nine races in 2019, including a second-place finish in Brazil. But his real moment of triumph was still to come. At the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, Gasly qualified tenth, but when it came to race day a series of pitstops and safety cars would fall in his favour. 

With Lewis Hamilton leading Lance Stroll ahead of Gasly, the Frenchman benefitted from a napping Stroll at the restart to move up to second, while Hamilton had an outstanding stop-go penalty to serve, allowing Gasly to take up the lead of the race. He held off a hard-charging Kimi Räikkönen and Sainz to take the chequered flag for the first time in his F1 career and the first and only under the AlphaTauri name.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Friday and Saturday tickets are now sold out, but Thursday and limited Sunday tickets are still available.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.