Toro Rosso are planning to build a new factory in Italy over the next few years. Berger has told Italian magazine Autosprint his team does not plan to set up a base in England to be closer to their parent team, Red Bull. He stated he was thinking of locating the factory in either Faenze or Forli. Berger explained, “The important thing for the team is to keep our Italian image.”
Forli, in the Emilia-Romagna region, is located a few kilometres south-east of Faenza and it has an airport.
Berger has also rejected claims that Toro Rosso will be relying on sister team Red Bull for the design of it’s 2007 Formula 1 car. Gossip claims that rival teams are considering legal action over the drink company’s rumoured plans to design a single chassis for both teams.
Rumours state that Toro Rosso may follow a similar path to the 2006 season and use the old Red Bull car. However Berger has rejected both theories. “It will be a project carried out in house, on the basis of our experience,” he explains. Toro Rosso incurred the ire of rival teams last season when their STR1 car appeared to be a reworked 2005 Red Bull car. However the team were able to escape falling foul to the regulations by claiming the 2005 Red Bull was actually designed by a Ford subsidiary and that before the 2006 start, the STR1 was fully rebuilt at its Faenza headquarters.
