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I like a press release with swear words in it. In the “rather impressive press kit” accompanying Toro Rosso’s launch of their new car they reveal that Red Bull’s motives for taking over the Minardi team in 2005 were that they “just liked pissing people off by buying a second team.”  Nice.  STR have their own unique style.

What is not so unique is their 2009 F1 car, the STR4, which was rolled out at the Circuit de Catalunya just outside Barcelona on Monday morning.  At first glance it looks like a carbon copy of the RB5 and, indeed, it uses the same Adrian Newey designed chassis as the  Red Bull car.  But acording to Toro Rosso’s Technical Director, Giorgio Ascanelli, the STR4 is not just a rebadged RB5:

It’s a common misconception that before the start of the season a big truck turns up in Faenza from Milton Keynes, its back door folds down and, hey presto, a fully-built Toro Rosso car rolls out. In fact, Scuderia Toro Rosso has far more control over its technical destiny, right from the design stage through to construction.

I guess most of the differences are under the skin though because it’s going to be hard to tell these two cars apart on the track.  Replacing the Red Bull’s Renault engine with Ferrari power caused a lot of redesign of the internal plumbing as Ascanelli explains:

Different engines have different heat rejection and different operating temperatures, with materials specified to different levels. Also, the tolerances, which you have to respect when building an engine, are tuned in such a way that an engine works at its best within a defined temperature range. This in itself conditions the radiators and also all of the internal aerodynamics. That then impacts on the aero side and this work is also done in Faenza.

All of this in-house design work will be good preparation for the team.  Next year, the Toro Rosso customer car exemption will run out and the team will have to design and build their own car from scratch.

Pictures of the new car below:

Red Bull Racing have unveiled their 2009 Formula One car, the RB5, at Jerez today. We saw an animated preview of the car last week when Red Bull released a video describing the rule changes for 2009.

The massive changes in rules for 2009 meant that designer Adrian Newey went back to the drawing board for the new car; almost nothing is carried over from last year’s RB4.

Newey has produced an exciting looking car. The front wing looks more advanced than some other teams and the long, high nose features two bulges above the wheels. The rear wing somehow looks more in proportion than other cars, too.

While the new rules, which include aerodynamic changes, a return to slicks and the introduction of KERS, are intended to improve overtaking, Newey thinks the field could actually be more spread out than last year:

Last year the entire field was very close, with a very tight grid and five different chassis manufacturers winning races. A major rule change is likely to have the opposite effect, just one or two teams get it right and do all the winning.

Newey should know. In 1998 he designed the championship-winning McLaren MP4/13 after a number of rule changes including the introduction of grooved tyres and narrower cars. That year the McLarens of Mikka Hakkinen and David Coulthard dominated the field.

Red Bull will be hoping the RB5 has the same effect allowing them to match their sister team’s efforts of 2008 when Sebastian Vettel won at Monza for Toro Rosso.

The new Red Bull Racing RB5 is set to be launched on Monday but the team have released a preview video showcasing the new Adrian Newey designed car.

In the animated video, narrated by Sebastian Vettel, the 2008 RB4 morphs into the new look RB5 as each of the rule changes are discussed.

The car also explodes to show the battery-based Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS.)

Vettel’s team mate, Mark Webber, thinks the new RB5 will be one of the most beautiful of the 2009 cars, he told the Austrian paper Salzburger Nachrichten:

[The RB5 is] perhaps the most beautiful of the 2009 class, which under the new regulations was pretty difficult.

How similar the car will look in the flesh will be revealed on Monday but it seems like quite a nice looking car; maybe not as pretty as the McLaren or Ferrari but definitely better than Renault and BMW’s efforts.

21-year-old Vettel will be first to drive the new car on Monday at Jerez with Webber taking over later in the week.

Video: Red Bull Racing