The Weekly Grapevine
Dieter Rencken delves into the unknown future of the Scuderia Toro Rosso team, against the backdrop of the customer car row, and traces the troubled squad's history back to its origin as Minardi
What next for Toro Rosso?
This year was supposed to herald the return of the customer car, a phenomenon once prevalent in Formula One, but banned at about the time the category began its march to real sporting prominence.
As has been well documented, both here and elsewhere, the regulations permitting teams to race bought-in chassis was amended after robust legal threats from two independents building their own chassis - Williams and Force India (nee Spyker, formerly Midland, originally Jordan, under which guise the team first threatened arbitration, proving how the saga has dragged). The rules now require teams entering the world championship from 2010 onwards to wholly own the intellectual rights to their chassis.
Share Or Save This Story
Vettel: Last Ferrari step back to winning F1 titles will be hardest
Revealed: What F1 teams really spent in 2017
Aftermath of Hamilton Baku clash Vettel's 'worst feeling' of 2017
Why F1 is sitting on a timebomb of contradictions
Lewis Hamilton hopes Fernando Alonso is in 2018 F1 title fight
How teams lost patience with F1's new era
Michael Schumacher doubted himself, reveals ex-Ferrari F1 boss Todt
Why Todt's reign is eight years longer than planned
DTM rivals question Lamborghini’s “overperformance” in Spielberg races
Red Bull staff being poached is a “natural development” – Marko
BTCC Brands Hatch: Vauxhall duo claim 1-2 in free practice
Vinales "looked like a cone" after Motegi sprint start woes
When a generation of drivers learned skills for life from an atypical academy scheme
The enduring power of Prodrive at 40
Inside the archive that keeps motorsport’s most closely-guarded secrets
The choppy waters McLaren has navigated behind the scenes of its F1 success
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
