Scuderia Toro Rosso tackled its fourth season in Formula One with a lot to live up to, having finished sixth in the 2008 Constructors' Championship, with a best ever points haul of 39, thanks in part to the team's first win at the Italian Grand Prix. Red Bull was very much the hot topic in 2005, its maiden year in F1, and grabbed the headlines all the way through the season, ending with the announcement it had bought the Minardi team to create Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Red Bull's motives in taking over the team were prompted by the need to find cockpits for the most talented of the rookie drivers emerging from its Young Driver Programme, or maybe because it just liked pissing people off by buying a second team.

In 2008 Sebastian Vettel ably demonstrated the effectiveness of the young driver concepti. Continuity is important in Formula One and STR still has Franz Tost at the helm and Giorgio Ascanelli heading the technical operation.