The copy is legalDespite the team`s avowals to the contrary, paddock speculation is convinced that the `new` STR01 Toro Rosso car is simply a reworked 2005 `RB1` Red Bull.
As energy drink mogul Dietrich Mateschitz`s second team, the apparent STR approach is hardly surprising. But, to the letter of the Concorde agreement, it is actually illegal, because every team must either pen a unique car and its components, or buy them from a non-F1 entity.
Indeed, the clause moved Super Aguri to scrap plans to run the 2005 BAR in 2006, and instead revert to the four-year-old Arrows A23.
Red Bull, already under fire for running a limited V10 in the junior team`s car, insist that `STR01` is neither the RB1 or a development of last year`s Minardi. It cannot argue that copying the RB1 is legal because it was basically designed by defunct Jaguar/Ford, as Red Bull Racing acquired the team from Ford as a going concern.
It has emerged, however, that a `loophole` may be in play, with claims that - on paper - the Jaguar R5 (RB1) was officially designed and built by a Ford subsidiary -- which is a non-F1 entity.
Furthermore, Scuderia Toro Rosso - testing the actual `05 Red Bull in Bahrain this week - now owns the intellectual property rights of the STR01 design, meaning that - in essence – the copy is legal.
It should, however, be pointed out that any rival team can protest the legality of the Toro Rosso car at any time once it has debuted.
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