STR to announce new technical boss

UPDATE This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' with today's announcement – see Hot News page.

04/01/07 Toro Rosso is expected to confirm later this week that veteran engineer Giorgio Ascanelli will immediately return to formula one as the Faenza based team's technical director.

The Italian was STR co-owner Gerhard Berger's race engineer during his stints at Ferrari and McLaren in the 1990s, and the pair have remained close friends.

Ascanelli also engineered for Ayrton Senna but in recent years has been working outside of formula one as technical director at Maserati.

It is expected that he could start work for Toro Rosso at the Malaysian grand prix.

STR's existing technical director Alex Hitzinger, meanwhile, will reportedly stay at the Italian squad and focus on developing new technology.