Along with Ferrari’s driver line up changing next year there is a chance that Ferrari will also be moving its engines over to Torro Rosso. This is what Red Bull want for a variety of performance reasons. And Red Bull are trying to make it seem like it was Ferrari’s idea all along by saying that Ferrari should want their engine in the back of the only Italian team with an italian driver. When all it’s really about is that Red Bull want Renault engines.

But it wasn’t always like this. In the old days Ferrari never wanted to dilute the brand so they badged their engines Petronis and sold them to Sauber. But despite the more prominent name in the deal with Red Bull the relationship is very different. For a very long time Sauber was seen as a fully fledged Ferrari b team. Now that we see real b teams like Super Aguri and Torro Rosso we mark it down but it was certainly considered it at the time. On several occasions it was suggested by commentators that they would be subject to team orders even.

But the signs are that Ferrari and Red Bull are nowhere near as close. And maybe that’s not a problem now. But I think it will be in the future. Because although I haven’t seen anyone really talk about it Ferrari are now going to be sporting an all Sauber team line up.

So maybe they should switch to Torro Rosso. At least the driver line up there says future more than at Red Bull.