Official: AlphaTauri will be called “Visa Cash App RB” in 2024
After being called AlphaTauri for four years, the Faenza team will now be named Visa Cash App Racing Bulls. The team's name was seen on their social media before being quickly changed and finally confirmed on Wednesday, January 24th at 1 PM.
The official name of the team in 2024 will therefore be Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team.
The first new global sports partnership for Visa in over 15 years, this agreement includes the Visa Cash App RB team, the corresponding title partnership for the entry of the F1 Academy team, and the Oracle Red Bull Racing team. The Visa logo will appear on the Oracle Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App RB cars, as well as on the entries of the respective F1 Academy teams. » explains the press release.
“This is a groundbreaking partnership and an excellent opportunity for the Visa brand to engage one of the fastest-growing sports communities on the planet,” said Frank Cooper III, Visa’s marketing director. “This alliance strongly aligns with Visa’s vision of inspiring individuals to ‘succeed’ by striving to take small steps of improvement every day, in every race or event.”
Several name changes.
The Red Bull B team was born from the acquisition of the Minardi team in 2006. From 2006 to 2019, it was simply called Toro Rosso and won a victory at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel.
In 2020, the Austrian group decided to name the team AlphaTauri, in order to promote its clothing brand. The team seemed to distance itself from Red Bull and had made progress in the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Pierre Gasly achieved a victory in Monza in 2020 and a third place in Baku the following year. The team finished in sixth place in the constructors’ championship in 2021.
But while the new 2022 chassis regulations allow Red Bull and Verstappen to dominate the championship, the Faenza team does not have the same results at all. The team is ninth in the constructor standings in 2022 and eighth the following year.
During the 2023 season, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko repeatedly stated their desire for AlphaTauri to once again align closely with Red Bull. There were mentions of their intention to have the AlphaTauri factory in England instead of Italy.
We are going to change the name of the company, the identity, the logo.
It is in this context that the name AlphaTauri disappears to make way for Racing Bulls, in order to highlight the merger of the two teams. But the team will also be sponsored by Visa and Cash App, whose names will be added to Racing Bulls. The full name of the team was spotted on the team’s social media before being changed.
The identity is what Toro Rosso would have been, and it is once again aligning itself with the Red Bull family. But then, it will appear with partners for naming rights. We are going to change the company’s name, we are going to change the identity, the logo, everything, a complete relaunch, a complete overhaul of the brand image, explains Peter Bayer, former executive director of AlphaTauri.
Cash App brings a similar philosophy and dynamism to the world of personal finances, leveraging technology to enable fast and secure money transfers, the purchase and sending of bitcoins, and investments in stocks,” Christian Horner stated in 2021, a year in which Cash App was one of Red Bull’s sponsors.
On his part, the new team principal, Peter Bayer, commented on this announcement: “It’s fantastic to unveil the new identity and welcome new partners as we enter the next phase of the team’s Formula 1 story. Faenza is entering a new era of racing, remaining true to our roots as a talent factory, but now with an even greater focus on competing for the biggest prizes in F1. We have a bold vision for the team led by myself and team manager, Laurent Mekies, and having future-oriented partners like Visa and Cash App by our side on this journey is extremely exciting.”
