Scuderia Toro Rosso STR4

Scuderia Toro Rosso revealed today their 2009 challeneger – STR4. The car was built (same as Red Bull’s RB5) by Red Bull Technology. And while Toro Rosso’s technical director Giorgio Ascanelli insists the new STR4 is not a rebadged Red Bull Racing RB5 it would be quite difficult to spot too many differences other than those directly related to different engine and then of course the livery. If you spot any, please list them out in the comments ! The STR4 should be the last Toro Rosso car built by Red Bull. From 2010 Toro Rosso should built their own car to comply with the regulations that do not allow teams running customer cars.

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F1Wolf

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The 2009 F1 grid has been finalized and here are the logos of all 10 teams that will participate in 2009 Formula One Championship. Compared to 2008 F1 team logos there are of course missing those of Super Aguri and Honda Racing while Brawn GP is the new addition. There is also change in Force India logo. The capital “I” that resembled the digit “1″ was replaced by “i” making the logo more Ecclestone friendly.

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Sebastien Buemi will become the 5th Toro Rosso race driver since the team appeared on the grid in 2006. It will be interesting to watch what direction his Toro Rosso (and F1) carreer will take. People say that when there is a chance to race in F1 one has to grab as it may never ever come again. But grabbing the chance in wrong time in such an unforgiving team as Toro Rosso is may result in very short F1 career …

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Sebastien Buemi is at the moment the only confirmed rookie driver for 2009 Formula One season. Recently Red Bull released an interview with the young Swiss driver. Watch the video to find out about his feelings after being confirmed by Toro Rosso, the reaction in Switzerland, his thoughts on the team, on Sebastian Vettel, on F1 tracks and more … If for some reason you hear no sound, just click on the volume bars at the bottom right corner of the video to activate the sound.

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The waiting is over, the 2009 F1 seat is secure for Bourdais

Toro Rosso took their time but at the end they made the decision that many would consider being the right one. They chose Sebastien Bourdais over Takuma Sato for 2009 season. This decision also ends speculations about Jenson Button or Rubens Barrichello possibly joining the Faenza team following collapse of Honda F1 project. This is what Le Seb had to say:

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There was not much talk about more teams leaving Formula One for quite some time. The cost saving measures seemed to have done the trick. But last few days the F1 exit talks surfaced again. The 2009 season seems to be the make or break for Toyota. Some fresh rumours surfaced also about future of Renault (not sure how much of this is true and how much is made up), Pitpass also raised some concern about Force India finances … Well, in market conditions as we see right now, there is always the possibility of somebody following Honda and exiting F1. Bernie Ecclestone already told us whom he would miss and whom he would not want to loose:

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KERS - the green source of headache for many

The introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) into Formula 1 has turned into rather controversial issue. One hand this brainchild of Max Mosley is here to show to the outside world how green and road relevant F1 can be. On the other hand this for F1 new technology has been a massive drain on financial resources of the teams at the time when FIA , FOTA and even Bernie Ecclestone talk about need to drastically reduce the cost of Formula One.

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Seabstien Buemi graduates from GP2 to Formula 1

As expected Scuderia Toro Rosso have confirmed that Sebastien Buemi will be one of their racing drivers in the 2009 season. The team will however take sometime to decide who will be Buemi’s team mate with Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato being the main candidates.

Buemi is part of Red Bull’s junior driver programme. Last year he raced in GP2 for Arden and finished the season in 6th place. He landed his Formula One race drive despite former Toro Rosso owner Gerhard Berger saying in July last year (when talking about fellow Austrian Andreas Zuber) – “What I always say is that someone in GP2 who wants to be in F1 needs to win the championship.” Well, Berger is no longer with Toro Rosso… Buemi however always seemed to be high on Red Bull and Toro Rosso list and his performanes during the December tests very much sealed his F1 drive. Team boss Franz Tost:

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With all the eyes focused on future of the Brackley team formerly known as Honda we tend to forget that there is one more team with uncertain future also looking for a buyer – Scuderia Toro Rosso. The talk about Honda being suited by several interested parties may be encouraging for Red Bull. If there indeed are several parties in talk with Honda that means that even in the current conditions there are people interested in entering Formula 1. When (if) Honda is sold some of the loosing bidders may turn their eye to Toro Rosso. May, if the team is assured of future existence. Some sponsors on board would probably also do no harm to longe term prospects of the former Minardi team.

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Oris extended the sponsorship agreement with AT&T Williams

FIA and FOTA came to some sort of agreement on cost cutting at their meeting yesterday. We are to see tomorrow what are they so happy about. But besides cutting the expenses the teams also need some sort of income from sponsors or drivers. Here is quick overview of the latest developments on F1 sponsorship front:

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