When Red Bull acquired the Minardi team for the 2006 season, the intent was clear: to create a structured pathway for young Red Bull junior drivers to gain Formula One experience before potentially stepping up to the main Red Bull Racing team. Operating as Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for "Team Red Bull"), the Faenza squad fulfilled this role immediately. Sebastian Vettel graduated through the system to win four consecutive World Drivers' Championships with Red Bull Racing from 2010 to 2013. Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen both spent formative seasons at Toro Rosso before their own promotions. Daniel Ricciardo raced for the team in 2012 and 2013 before eventually returning two decades later.
The team's greatest result during the Toro Rosso years came at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Sebastian Vettel — driving in only his first full season — won the rain-affected race to make Toro Rosso the first Red Bull-owned team to win a Formula One Grand Prix, and Vettel the youngest driver at that time to win a World Championship race.
For the 2020 season, Toro Rosso was renamed Scuderia AlphaTauri to promote Red Bull's AlphaTauri fashion brand. The rebrand coincided with a shift in positioning: team management emphasised that AlphaTauri had transitioned from a pure junior team to a genuine sister constructor. Pierre Gasly, who had been promoted to Red Bull Racing in 2019 and then demoted mid-season, returned to the Faenza team and produced one of the sport's most surprising victories at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix at Monza — becoming the first driver from the team's lineage to win a race outside of the Vettel era.
Yuki Tsunoda joined the team for 2021 and became a long-term fixture, building substantial experience across multiple seasons.
The team was rebranded to Visa Cash App RB F1 Team — shortened to "RB" — for the 2024 season. The name attracted widespread criticism from fans and media, with commentators calling it among the worst team names in Formula One history on the basis that it appeared to exist solely to force sponsor names into conversation and lacked distinct identity separate from Red Bull Racing. The team retained Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda for 2024; Ricciardo was dropped after the Singapore Grand Prix and replaced by reserve driver Liam Lawson, who scored points immediately on his return. The team finished eighth in the 2024 Constructors' Championship with 46 points.
For 2025, the team competed as Racing Bulls, dropping the RB initialism entirely. Lawson was promoted to the main Red Bull team but was returned to Racing Bulls after two disappointing results, with Tsunoda promoted to Red Bull in his place. Isack Hadjar, the reigning Formula 2 champion, took Lawson's seat at Racing Bulls. Hadjar delivered a breakthrough result at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, finishing third to give the team its sixth podium in history and its first as Racing Bulls. The team ended 2025 sixth in the Constructors' Championship with 92 points, their strongest season to date.
From 2026, Racing Bulls and sister team Red Bull Racing switched from Honda RBPT-branded power units — which had powered the team since the 2018 Toro Rosso season — to Red Bull Ford Powertrains units, marking Ford's return to Formula One for the first time since 2004. Lawson was retained for 2026, joined by Arvid Lindblad after a strong Formula 2 campaign. Hadjar was promoted to the main Red Bull team. Lindblad scored points on his debut in Australia.
The Faenza team's greatest contribution to Formula One has been as a talent incubator. The list of drivers who developed at Toro Rosso or AlphaTauri before reaching the sport's highest level is substantial, with Vettel, Verstappen, Sainz, Ricciardo, and Gasly among those who used the team as a stepping stone. The team's record of six podiums across two decades reflects a squad operating in the midfield while fulfilling a structural role within the Red Bull empire that goes beyond its own results.