As corporate sponsorship becomes a bigger component of a Formula One team’s revenue, the classic names under which they raced are becoming more and more bizarre, particularly amongst the smaller teams.

Sauber who were founded by Peter Sauber and entered Formula One in 1993 raced under this simple name until the year 2005. They were partially acquired by BMW and their FIA entry was listed as BMW-Sauber until 2010.

 

 

 

Sauber from sublime to ridiculous

With BMW pulling out of there sport the Swiss based team returned to their former name until the Sauber name was dropped in 2019 and they races as the Alfa Romeo F1 team.

Audi are slowly acquiring the team and in 2026 plan to run the operation as a full Audi branded works team, but for the intervening period they are entered as the convoluted Stake F1 team Kick Sauber.

AlphaTauri were known prior to 2020 as Toro Rosso. The team was bought from Australian Paul Stoddart and had competed in Formula One as Minardi. Toro Rosso translated means Red Bull and the bulk of their funding prior to the 2020 rebrand came from the energy drinks empire.

With the Styrian based clothing company Alphtauri suffering financial difficulties, Dr. Helmut Marko announced last year the team would have new sponsors and a new name for 2024.

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At the time Helmut Marko was outlining the future of the Faenza based team he made it clear the focus would shift from it being a mere breeding ground for young driver talent and through a closer partnership with Red Bull would look to be more competitive.

The recruitment of Daniel Ricciardo marked the end of the team reciting inexperienced drivers to blood them in F1. Further their relocation to England over the winter has been a key part of their deepening relationship with Red Bull which has been criticised in certain quarters.

New entries for the following F1 season must be lodged with the FIA in early December and so the AlphaTauri team were recorded as competitors for this year as “Scuderia Alpha Tauri RB”. However, the FIA allow a certain amount of leniency knowing sponsorship deals are often done during the winter months and any team can amend their listing before the cars hit the track at the first Grand Prix outing.

Red Bull’s Dr. Marko confirmed the change would occur telling Kleine Zeitung, “There will be new sponsors and also a new name.” This was confirmed by CEO Peter Bayer who openly admitted, ”We will change the company name, we will change identity, logo, everything, a complete relaunch, complete rebrand.”

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AT new name

Much was made before Christmas of the fact Red Bull GmbH have filed two applications in Austria for both the Racing Bulls word mark and a logo mark with the famous bull. While nothing has been officially confirmed, Peter Bayer has said that plans have now been finalised to incorporate the team’s new American sponsors into the new branding and the full official team name, and it is anticipated that the team livery will also change to be more consistent with the Red Bull brand.

As TJ13 reported last week, fans playing sleuth had discovered Red Bull registering the domain ‘VisaCashAppRB’. This followed the registration of the domain starting ‘RacingBulls’.

And today the curtain has been raised as Red Bull have officially confirmed their junior team will be called “Visa Cash App RB”.

Described as “an unprecedented multi-year agreement”, Visa becomes the first global partner of both Red Bull F1 teams though will be much more prominent on the Scuderia AlphaTauri livery.

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VISA absent for 15y from global sport

This is VISA’s first global sports sponsorship in over 15 years and they will be associated with the F1 academy team along with Oracle Red Bull Racing.

The cash app brand refers to a money application which allows the opening, storing and sending of money. In a similar fashion MoneyGram too (the old travellers cheques business) has decided to market its products in F1 as the become the named sponsor for the MoneyGram Haas F1 team.

The new Visa Cash App RB team will unveil its livery for the year on February the 8th and new CEO said sat the announcement: “It’s fantastic to reveal the new identity and to welcome new partners as we embark on the next phase of the team’s Formula 1 story.

Another swipe at Lewis Hamilton

 

 

 

What will people call the team?

Peter Mayer claims, “The new identity is not simply a name change. It’s the start of a thrilling new journey designed to take the team to new levels of competitiveness and that’s demonstrated in the presence of one of the world’s most iconic brands as the team’s title partner.”

Yet the question must be posed…. What will the commentators and fans in reality call the team?

Clearly nobody will call them the VISA CASH APP team and is this an example of where marketing takes control of something and by renaming the old fashioned Minardi has created a bizarre monster to which no one can relate to at present.

Off could it could be be ‘VCA’ becomes the universally accepted designation for AlphaTauri, but as yet no one is certain.

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F1 dump Barcelona for Madrid Grand Pri

One of Formula One’s longer standing circuits is set to be dumped from the calendar when its contract runs out in 2026. Barcelona has held the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991 when the Circuit de Catalunya was opened as part of the infrastructure work completed for the city to host the 1992 Olympics.

The 1992 event was titled, “The Grand Prix of the Olympics” and the circuit has hosted an early season Formula One race in April or May ever since. Barcelona has also been used extensively over the years for pre-season testing. The track layout is considered by the F1 teams Ann excellent all round test of the aerodynamics of a Formula One car….. READ MORE: