This morning, at the Circuit de Catalunya, outside Barcelona, Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Ferrari-powered contender for the 2009 Formula 1 World Championship was unveiled in the pit lane, before beginning a four day test programme alongside every other team entered in the series.

At nine o’clock, as soon as pit lane was opened, Sebastien Bourdais took to the track for the initial installation lap. After that, it was back to the garage for the usual checks.

Codenamed the STR4, the car is a joint venture between Red Bull Technology and Toro Rosso and once again this year it is fitted with a Ferrari V8 engine. This will be the third season that Toro Rosso will use Ferrari engines; the Faenza-based outfit, formerly known as the Minardi team, took over the engine contract with Maranello that was broken by the senior Red Bull team at the beginning of 2006.

“In 2008 our performance exceeded our expectations,” commented team principal, Franz Tost. “It’s going to be tough to live up to that this year. Within the team we can rely on a good level of stability, as all the key players on the technical side have been in place for some time now. Further stability comes courtesy of the input of Red Bull Technology. From Red Bull Racing’s first test in Jerez it appeared the chassis was competitive and that Adrian Newey and his team had come up with a very promising package. This year marks the third year of our collaboration with Ferrari, which, on both a human and technical level, works very well. In 2008 we lined up two F1 novice drivers, but Bourdais now has 18 grands prix under his belt, and this year’s rookie, Buemi, has already shown well in winter testing.”