The AlphaTauri Formula 1 team will switch to a new name for the 2024 season, set to be complete with two American sponsors in the outfit’s name. According to respected social media outlet Decalspotters, they will be Visa and Cash App.
The Faenza-based team were formerly known as Toro Rosso before a rebrand in 2020 switched the team identitiy to the Red Bull-owned clothing company.
Since their first race in 2006 under the Toro Rosso name after they took ownership of the former Minardi squad, the team has won two races — Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly at Monza in 2008 and 2020 respectively. They’ve scored five podiums overall.
Heading into the final round of 2023, AlphaTauri trail Williams by seven points in the battle for P7 in the Constructors’ Championship.
The name ‘Racing Bulls’ has been rumoured and the team would prefer not to be linked to a sponsor as is the case with the current AlphaTauri identity.
AlphaTauri CEO Peter Bayer finalised plans to incorporate to US-based sponsors into the team name with the deadline for the FIA’s entry list in December a critical deadline to hit.
“The identity will be generic,” Bayer told Motorsport Network.“The identity is what Toro Rosso would have been, and it’s moving closer to the Red Bull family again. But then it will appear with the naming rights partners.
“We will change the company name, we will change identity, logo, everything, a complete relaunch, complete rebrand.
“The name of the team, the identity, has been decided by the shareholders. And I need to carry it with me without being able to share, which is very difficult!”
The Italian team’s presence has developed in the United States, which Bayer said helped AlphaTauri in finding their new sponsors for next season.
“We’re on a good trajectory,” he said. “And because we have such good traction in the US at the moment, we found these two companies who like each other.
“We had a very, very good meeting with these two big new partners. And they understood each other really well. They sort of mingled immediately.
“We talked about when do we announce it? What do we do? And we said look, this is what usually happens, and we have the FIA entry form and we have the livery presentation. And then they had ideas.
“They started brainstorming so much that I got scared, actually! They have a couple of very big ideas. They’re thinking big, bigger than we would probably have dared to think.”
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
