Team History

After unsuccessful attempts to purchase the Sauber and Arrows teams, Austrian energy drink magnate Dietrich Mateschitz finally was able to obtain his own F1 team in the form of the Jaguar operation at the end of the 2004 season, following the total withdrawal of parent company Ford from the sport. Almost all of the Jaguar staff stayed on to form the basis of the new team, which continued to make use of the Cosworth engine. The team signed the experienced David Coulthard as #1 driver but took the unusual step of splitting seat time between Red Bull Junior drivers Christian Klien (who drove for Jaguar in 2004) and 2004 F3000 Champion Vitantonio Liuzzi, with the drivers alternating every 3 or 4 races. Klien's early performances outshone Liuzzi however and the Italian only got one spell of four GP in the race car (San Marino, Spain, Monaco and Europe). American GP2 entrant Scott Speed was given the chance to run the third car in practice at the Canadian and US GP with Liuzzi running the rest of the season. Coulthard surprised many with a strong debut in Australia and was regularly in the points throughout the season with Klien also putting together some strong performances as the season went on.

Toward the end of the 2005 season, the team announced it had signed a deal to run Ferrari V8 engines in 2006 replacing Sauber as Maranello's customer team. With Coulthard, Klein, Liuzzi and Speed all under contract for '06,  Mateschitz purchased the Minardi team from Paul Stoddard creating a Scuderia Toro Rosso ("Team Red Bull" in Italian) in order to have a place for the other drivers to race.

Team Record

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