AlphaTauri is set to be rebranded for the 2024 Formula 1 season as part of the team’s ongoing restructuring under new Red Bull management, according to Helmut Marko.
AlphaTauri is ready for a management restructuring as long-serving team boss Franz Tost will step aside at the end of the campaign to be replaced by Ferrari’s respected racing director Laurent Mikis.
Now Marco said this overhaul will extend to the AlphaTauri name. Speaking to Austria’s Klein Zeitung, the 80-year-old explained: “AlphaTauri will have two new leaders in Laurent Mekies and Peter Baer (outgoing FIA general secretary) from 2024.
“There will be new sponsors as well as a new name. The direction is clear: based on Red Bull Racing, as far as the regulations allow. Do-it-yourself construction is the wrong way.”
Faenza’s future was the subject of much speculation at the beginning of the year.
It followed the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz in late 2022, and the installation of a new leadership structure for the company, while AlphaTauri struggled to adapt to ground-influence rules.
Last month, however, Red Bull motorsport advisor Marco confirmed that a decision had been made to keep AlphaTauri – which is at the bottom of the carmaker’s standings – but that the main focus of operation would move to the UK.
This would allow the team to build around its aerodynamics position at Bicester and allow greater collaboration with constructors’ champion Red Bull to improve form and save money.
Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
“The decision has been made,” Marko said of the Grand Prix team that won the 2008 and 2020 Italian Grand Prix. AlphaTauri will remain wholly owned by Red Bull and will continue to be operated as a small team.
“The collaboration with Red Bull Racing will be even closer, also in terms of maximum cost and synergies.”
AlphaTauri previously ran under the Toro Rosso moniker between 2006 and 2019. Its rebranding was seen as a way to boost the awareness of Red Bull’s AlphaTauri fashion division.
But questions have been raised internally by Red Bull’s new chief executive, Oliver Mintzlaff, about the limited impact of the F1 operation in increasing the brand’s visibility.
Prior to the renaming, there was still uncertainty surrounding the group’s immediate future. Full-time Formula 1 rookie Nyck de Vries is under pressure to keep his seat heading to the European part of the calendar after a series of crashes.
The Formula E and FIA F2 champion has finished behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda in six of the eight GPs held so far this season.