The aero section of AlphaTauri is going to expand on the other side of the English Channel
Helmut Marko stated that Red Bull had decided not to sell AlphaTauri or move it from its Italian base in Faenza. However, he revealed that the Formula 1 team would be expanding its presence in the United Kingdom.
The future of AlphaTauri was unclear following information that the new CEO of Red Bull, Oliver Mintzlaff, was dissatisfied with the team’s performance based in Faenza. After a difficult start to the season, Marko acknowledged in March that AlphaTauri needed to improve both its on-track performance and its business results. Before being the name of a Formula 1 team, AlphaTauri is indeed a full-fledged clothing brand and therefore has its own communication and commercial challenges.
The following month, it was announced that Franz Tost, long-time team principal, would be leaving at the end of the season and would be replaced by Laurent Mekies from Ferrari. The former Secretary General of the FIA, Peter Bayer, will become the CEO of the F1 team. After weeks of evaluation, Red Bull has now finalized the operational structure of the new AlphaTauri team.
No sales but more staff in England
The sale of the team had been considered, but it has been dismissed. The current base of AlphaTauri in Faenza, near Imola, will remain the main center of the team, but it will also employ more staff from its British site in Bicester. Currently, this site houses the aerodynamics department of AlphaTauri, but more personnel will be deployed there to enhance synergy with the parent team, Red Bull, located just a 30-minute drive away.
« The decision has been made. AlphaTauri will remain fully owned by Red Bull and will continue to be managed as a junior team, revealed Marko, Red Bull’s advisor. However, according to the head of the Red Bull Young Driver Program, Mintzlaff has asked the team « to use as many synergies with Red Bull Racing as allowed by the regulations », which means relocating more staff to Bicester, located about twenty kilometers from Red Bull’s F1 headquarters in Milton Keynes.
« Cooperation with Red Bull Racing will be closer, including in terms of cost capping and synergies. » Marko specifies: « With his expertise, which he gained at the FIA, [Bayer] is very important. Of course, this will also have an impact on Red Bull Racing.
But the former Austrian driver emphasized that while many options have been considered, the Faenza site will not be abandoned and the rest of the staff will remain in Italy, including Bayer and Mekies.
The outgoing team principal, Franz Tost, believed that a more balanced distribution between Faenza and Bicester was the right decision as the team strives to be more competitive in the F1 job market. Relocating to Italy often proves to be a hurdle for experienced employees and their families.
« It has always been clear to me that the team would stay in Faenza. We have all the infrastructure here », explained Tost. In England, AlphaTauri already has a lot of employees. The entire aerodynamics team is in England. And what we will certainly do in the future is that if we want to hire engineers but they don’t want to go to Italy, for whatever reason, then they can work from this base in England.
I think it will help the team in the future because it was very, very difficult in the past to bring experienced engineers to Italy. Experienced engineers are 35 or 40 years old, they have families, children, and they don’t want to go to Italy.
Red Bull has not yet decided whether the name AlphaTauri, which promotes the Red Bull clothing brand, will be kept or if the team will change its name again. « This has not yet been decided. It is up to Red Bull to decide the name they want to give the team in the future », estimated Franz Tost.
