AlphaTauri is the latest iteration of the team first founded in Faenza with the name Minardi. Red Bull acquired the failing team from Australian Paul Stoddard and competed  as Toro Rosso first in 2006.

The team has functioned as a junior team to Red Bull creating opportunities for those in their young driver programme changing its name to promote the parent companies fashion brand AlphaTauri in 2000.

 

 

AlphaTauri new name for 2024

During the early years the Faenza based team were supplied by Red Bull for all its components allowable by the FIA regulations, but in 2010 the decision was taken for the team to operate independently from the Milton Keynes mother ship.

This week Red Bull announced AlphaTuari would be rebranded for 2024 due to the financial difficulties being faced by the fashion brand.

The team will have new senior personnel for 2024 as the second longest stranding F1 team boss in Franz Tost is set to step down.

Helmut Marko confirmed in an interview with Austrian publication Kleine Zeitung: 

 

 

F1 Operations relocated to England

“AlphaTauri will have two new leaders in 2024, Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer. There will be new sponsors and a new name, The orientation is clear – (it will be) based on Red Bull Racing, as far as the regulations allow. Do-it-yourself constructions are the wrong way.

This is a clear indication of a change in strategy for how the team will operate as it returns to buying as many of Red Bull’s allowable parts for their 2024 car.

Further as Ferrari have been finding recently, recruitment from the huge pool of talent based in England where seven of the F1 teams operate from has been difficult with families not wishing to relocate their whole lives to Italy.

To combat this Helmut Marko revealed much of the operation will be relocated to an English base with presumably just the production and assembly of the cars remaining in Faenza.

Haas F1 engineer criticises Hulkenberg

 

 

Marko: AlphaTauri not for sale

Rumours had emerged that Red Bull had been offered around $800m to sell the team but Helmut Marko dismisses this course of action out of hand.

“So the decision has been made. AlphaTauri will remain fully owned by Red Bull and will continue to be run as a junior team.

“The co-operation with Red Bull Racing will be closer, also in terms of cost cap and synergies.”

Now in his third year with the team, Japanese driver has been struggling to deliver the results the team previously enjoyed meaning his two 10th-place finishes in Australia and Azerbaijan this season are the only points the team has scored.

 

 

Honda exit removes influence

There are question marks over whether Tsunoda will be given a fourth season with the team given the association with Honda is coming to an end.

Honda announced before the Canadian Grand Prix they would be the sole supplier for Aston Martin come the end of their current contract. This reduces their influence to promote a Japanese driver within the Red Bull group.

Tsunoda is supportive of the new strategy for the team’s closer relationships with Milton Keynes and believes the performance benefit will immediately visible.

F1 champ predicts chaos in Austria

 

 

AlphaTauri to buy from Red Bull

“Definitely, especially on the performance side,” Tsunoda said in Austria.

“As we’ve seen over the last two years we’ve not really been in the place we wanted, especially last year.”

“We needed to change something. They gave us a chance for one more year to improve but it’s not changed much.

Haas F1 have a similar strategy buying everything they can from Ferrari and outsourcing the design of the monocoque to Dallara.

 

 

Tsunoda critical of management delays

Yuki Tsunoda appears to criticise the management of the Red Bull racing group for not acting sooner

“So it will be a good thing to have a lot more connection between Red Bull and AlphaTauri. Probably it should have been like that three years ago,” Tsunoda continues.

“Anyway, I think I’m pretty optimistic, with a stronger connection it should be better overall.”

As of yet Red Bull have given no indication of the new name for the team or who the title sponsor will be. 

Sainz threatens to quit Ferrari

 

 

New name not revealed

It appears Tsunoda is none the wiser on this subject:

“As for the name, I don’t know what it’s going to be. I just saw it in the news for the first time. It won’t affect me much I guess, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Helmut Marko has recently been critical of the Japanese drivers’ new team mate Nyck de Vries publicly admitting his young dutch driver was on a “yellow card.”

“We will have Ricciardo in the car for three days after Silverstone at the tyre test and then you can evaluate where Ricciardo really stands,” Marko told Austrian broadcaster ORF although it may not be Perez who is under threat from the Australian Grand Prix winner.

 

 

Ricciardo could join AlphaTauri

Having dismissed driving for a lower midfield order team previously on a number of occasions, Richard appears to have had a change ofd heart.

“Honestly, the fairytale ending (would be) to finish my career here (at Red Bull0 if I could have it all my own way. But we’ll see. I’ll probably have to work my way up a little bit, but it’s really nice to be back here,” said Ricciardo at the Canadian Grand Prix.

So presumably discussions have taken place about him replacing the so far pointless Nyck de Vries in Alpha Tauri.

This would allow Red Bull to also asses how Yuki Tsunoda stacks up against a multiple Grand Prix winner.

Ferrari ‘civil war’ breaking out

 

 

De Vries not phased

Yet just two points behind the vastly experienced Tsunoda, De Vries does not appear to be phased at all by the “yellow card” and the rumours of him being replaced.

“As I said in Monaco, prior to the weekend, I haven’t really been reading news so I’m not so much up to date with what everyone is saying,” said the dutch driver.

“But, you know, we live in the present. You’re as good as your last race and it’s ultimately all about performance.

“People make mistakes. I make mistakes. We’re human, we move forward. And this weekend is a new weekend.”

Points in either the Sprint or Grand Prix would be a real flip for De Vries and amidst the chaos that regularly occurs during qualifying at one of F1’s shortest circuits this weekend, anything is possible.

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Fernando made his feelings quite clear to Yuki 😆#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/CF7oNoECD3

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 26, 2023