Scuderia AlphaTauri, the sister team of motor racing's Formula 1 (F1) champions Red Bull, have been renamed Visa Cash App RB ahead of the 2024 campaign.
This rebrand, unveiled today, has come through a wider multi-year tie-up between the hugely successful Red Bull Racing organization, which owns two F1 outfits, and international credit card giant Visa.
Visa will become the first global partner of both Red Bull teams, with a joint release stating this is the brand’s “first new major global sports sponsorship” in over 15 years. In addition to naming rights covering the team, Visa will also have brand visibility across the main Red Bull team, which has Oracle as a title sponsor.
In addition, there are naming rights associated with the respective team in the F1 Academy subsidiary series, with the Visa logo set to appear on all cars associated with the Red Bull Racing organization.
Scuderia AlphaTauri (referencing Red Bull’s fashion brand) had been the name of Red Bull's secondary F1 team since 2020, with the team having first been bought by Red Bull Racing in 2006, only a year after the main outfit signed up as an F1 side.
Before 2020, the name was Toro Rosso, the Italian translation of Red Bull.
Reports first indicated that there would be a name change for the 2024 season - which will get underway on March 2 in Bahrain - in June last year. Other contenders for title sponsorship rights reportedly included JPMorgan and Hugo Boss.
As a step towards closer collaboration in the future, in 2024 the junior Red Bull team will move its physical aerodynamics and production headquarters to the UK, to be closer to the main F1 side. However, its headquarters will remain in Faenza, Italy.
As part of the tie-up, team drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo will “sport a newly designed Visa and Cash App inspired livery and driver’s kit” at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Visa will also aim to get its customers closer to F1 action during 2024, through behind-the-scenes access, driver interaction, and elevated hospitality at races, Red Bull have said.
Peter Bayer, chief executive of the new Visa Cash App RB team, stated: “It’s fantastic to reveal the new identity and to welcome new partners as we embark on the next phase of the team’s F1 story.
“We have a bold vision for the team led by myself and team principal, Laurent Mekies, and having future-focused partners such as Visa and Cash App alongside us on that journey is hugely exciting.”
In March, AlphaTauri appointed Lars Stegelmann to lead its commercial operations.
Frank Cooper III, Visa's chief marketing officer, added: “This is a groundbreaking partnership and a great opportunity for the Visa brand to engage one of the fastest-growing sports communities on the planet. This alliance resonates strongly with Visa’s vision to inspire individuals to ‘make it,’ striving to take small steps for improvement each day, during every race or event.”
In 2023, AlphaTauri finished eighth in the 10-team F1 Constructor’s Championship, and indeed the highest the team finished in that table under the AlphaTauri guise was sixth. By contrast, Red Bull’s main team has won six of those titles since originally joining F1 in 2005.
The future of that side was complicated by the death of Red Bull’s overall founder, the billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, in October 2022.
Mateschitz was primarily responsible for Red Bull having two F1 teams.
Visa, meanwhile, has been most active, in terms of sports sponsorships, in the world of soccer recently.
In November, a regional tie-up between Visa and the Asian Football Confederation was announced, while the brand was also a partner of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Elsewhere, it has a TOP sponsorship deal in place covering the Olympic Games with the International Olympic Committee.
