Toro Rosso beefs up technical staff
Both men started work at Toro Rosso on Thursday, although Furbatto will be appointed Chief Designer on 1 April and reporting directly to Technical Director Giorgio Ascanelli. Having worked with McLaren since 2000, he now replaces Ben Butler who will return to work with Red Bull Technology in Milton Keynes.
Tomlinson has been a key factor in Williams’ recent Grand Prix cars, but left the Grove outfit when Technical Director Sam Michael made his exit. He now joins Toro Rosso’s wind tunnel team in Bicester, taking up the position of Deputy Head of Aerodynamics and reporting to Nicolo Petrucci. Prior to his Williams days, Tomlinson was a member of staff at both Jordan and Renault.
As so-called ‘customer cars’ were banned in F1 from the start of 2010, Toro Rosso was presented with the challenge of designing its own car completely from scratch for the first time. Previously, the chassis were designed by subsidiary company Red Bull Technology, which also takes care of the sister Red Bull Racing cars.