Shocking though it may have been to see Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel in pole position at the Italian Grand Prix, few anticipated a race of dominance from the man we now know to be the youngest ever F1 winner. But that's exactly who Sebastian Vettel now is. He's 21. He's German. He drives for an infamous backmarker team, and he won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza today.No less important is the impact that comes from a race win by Scuderia Tora Rosso. While their cars are designed to be identical to that of the Red Bull Formula 1 racers, the STR cars use Ferrari engines and not Renault V8s. Toro Rosso simply means Red Bull in Italian. The name that was once written across team helmets and banners, however, was Minardi.
Minardi. Twas a team founded in 1979. Racing until 2005, Minardi became as famous for losing as the New York Yankees are for winning. Despite quality drivers like Alex Zanardi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli, and Christian Fittipaldi, Minardi's budget was famously miniscule compared with the giants of the sport at Ferrari and McLaren.
Today, the budget didn't matter. Forget famous drivers like Lewis Hamilton, Alonso, and Felipe Massa. It was a young man named Vettel who pulled through for those 15,000 Minardi fans who were so upset when the name of their team - their precious, precious team - was changed to Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Thus, in a way, Minardi's name can no longer be linked with the Atlanta Falcons or Texas Rangers Phoenix Suns or Buffalo Sabres. Thank-you Sebastian Vettel.
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