The Scuderia Toro Rosso STR1 was the car with which the Scuderia Toro Rosso team competed in the Formula One season. It was driven by Vitantonio Liuzzi, who had started four Grands Prix for the sister Red Bull Racing team in, and Scott Speed, a débutant who was the first American driver to compete in F1 since Michael Andretti in. The STR1 was the first car from the Faenza-based team to use Michelin tyres since the Minardi PS02. The STR1 was also the first Toro Rosso F1 car to feature the mandatory 7-speed gearbox configuration. 2006 marked a new beginning, as Red Bull had bought the Minardi team which had competed in F1 for twenty years and renamed it using the Italian translation of their brand name. The new team inherited Minardi's technical team and its factory at Faenza only, as ex-owner Paul Stoddart kept Minardi's other property in Ledbury. A deal that allowed the team to run restricted V10 engines, instead of V8s, was also maintained despite the new ownership. This allowed Toro Rosso to use an almost identical version of the previous year's Red Bull RB1 coupled with the same Cosworth engines, only power-restricted under the FIA's equivalency formula and also without any factory support from Cosworth. Both the chassis-sharing and V10 engine usage remained controversial topics throughout the season, as the engine agreement was designed to benefit the poor Minardi team, not the much richer Red Bull company. However, this wore off as the season progressed, as fears over the car's potential performance advantage proved to be unfounded. This was largely due to the year-old chassis, the torque advantage of the V10 being cancelled out by traction control, and the lack of engine development and tyre testing given to the team. However, the team were generally more competitive than Midland/Spyker and Super Aguri, and Liuzzi was able to score the team's only point at Indianapolis. Liuzzi was generally the quicker of the drivers, although Speed improved as he gained experience. Despite both getting involved in several accidents and mistakes due to their inexperience, the STR duo both drew praise from part-team owner Gerhard Berger for their performances. The team eventually finished ninth in the Constructors' Championship, with one point.
