Malaysian GP: Toro Rosso preview

Iec Cream Machine at Scuderia Toro Rosso

With the banning of race refuelling this season, like all teams our race refuelling rigs were made redundant. However, rather than hand them back to the manufacturer, it was decided to put them to good use. Toro Rosso has close links with the community in its home town of Faenza, Italy and so local technical colleges and universities were set a challenge of coming up with alternative uses for the rigs.

We received about twelve different proposals, including converting the unit into a solar powered refrigerator, a water purifier attached to the domestic water supply and even a steam bath! However, the panel of judges made up of Franz Tost, Giorgio Ascanelli and Faenza businessman Federico Pistacchio, accompanied by his wife, a former "Miss Emilia Romagna," Maria Vaniglia, had no hesitation in declaring the winners to be a team of students from the "Universita' della Stracciatella" in nearby Forli, who came up with the innovative idea of turning the refuelling rig into an ice cream making machine.

For the Malaysian Grand Prix, we have flown out the three students who came up with the winning idea, along with the amazing ice cream maker. The first 25 media to come down to our hospitality today, Thursday, will be able to sample one of these home made ice creams.

...Just don't blame us if there is still a slight whiff of petrol about them.

-source: toro rosso