AlphaTauri's new name? These two options drop out (for now?)!

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Alfa Romeo and toro rosso not new name alphatauri
3 July 2023 at 19:43
Last update 3 July 2023 at 20:32
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  • Ludo van Denderen

Helmut Marko announced last week that AlphaTauri is entering its final season in Formula 1. The name of the Italian team will change from 2024. What Red Bull Racing's sister team will then be called is still unknown. Two obvious options fall off - at least for the moment.

Soon after the announcement of Red Bull and AlphaTauri's consultant, it was suggested here and there that Toro Rosso is the most logical new (or old?) name. Franz Tost, outgoing team boss of the Italian outfit commented, "I don't think so, I think there's another posibility to get more out of it."


Name sponsor more lucrative for AlphaTauri

Possibly Tost is referring to contracting a name sponsor. An external partner who may not own the team, but whose name is used, would bring in tens of millions. At a stroke, this would make it a lot more attractive for the Red Bull group to run a second Formula One team.

After this season, Alfa Romeo will say goodbye to Sauber (which will eventually become Audi's factory team) and the Italian brand would be an ideal candidate for AlphaTauri. GPblog asked a spokesman for Stellantis - the Netherlands-based parent company of Alfa Romeo - about the possibility of the current AlphaTauri soon having Alfa Romeo as a name sponsor? " All rumours are completely false," was reported to this website.

In doing so, the spokesperson explicitly stated that not only is there no question of AlphaTauri bearing the name of the iconic car brand, that would not be the case in the case of Haas either. Recently, there was a persistent rumour that Alfa Romeo management was in talks with Haas F1 to be the US team's name sponsor from next season.


Alfa Romeo wants to stay in the sport

So Alfa Romeo is leaving Sauber, but it is by no means a given that the brand's name will disappear from Formula 1. The spokesperson reiterated that Alfa Romeo wants to remain active in motorsport, because this fits "with the DNA" of the brand founded in 1910. So that could also be in a class other than Formula 1. Originally, the spokesperson confirmed, more clarity on future plans would be given around this time of year, but that timing has been delayed.