Last week, the long-awaited name change at Faenza was finally announced. The Italian team said goodbye to AlphaTauri with new title sponsors, Visa and Cash App. They now competing as “Visa Cash App RB F1 Team”.
The financial giant founded by Dee Hock in 1958 will also be present on Red Bull’s livery. It will also be preset on the F1 Academy registrations of the respective teams.
For the team formerly known as Minardi, the change to “RacingBulls” as the Company Name is the third name change since it was acquired by the Red Bull group.
“We are very happy to have announced these important sponsors of ours and are ready to face the new F1 season.
“Faenza remains faithful in its commitment to F1 but with the possibility of reaching even more prestigious goals,” said CEO Peter Bayer during the official announcement.
Racing Bulls: The first ‘technical’ recruitments announced, there is strong interest in Matteo Piraccini, Head of Chassis Engineering at Haas
An “ambitious” approach, which we had associated with the now-former AlphaTauri, was reiterated in Peter Bayer’s statements.
“We have an ambitious team vision under the leadership of myself and Team Principal Laurent Mekies, and having future-oriented partners like Visa and Cash App alongside us on this journey is truly exciting.”
With Mekies having spent almost a month with the team, the first foundations are being laid. These are intended to meet the team’s medium-term plans of progressing in F1.
However, for the upcoming 2024 season, engineering announcements are still ahead.
Yesterday, through an important internal meeting between engineers and team members, further partners and sponsors were presented in addition to those already known. Among these is Orlen, who will also remain in 2024. However, there will be more.
The Mekies era began on January 8, with the first important discussions on issues relating to the internal reorganization of the Faenza team.
He was given only six months of “gardening leave” because Red Bull allowed some engineers to join Maranello.
Among the first points on the Frenchman’s agenda is the purchase of highly skilled personnel, both on the technical and management fronts.
The first purchases were announced in the last few hours. Alan Permane, former sporting director of Alpine, is the new Racing Director of the Italian team.
Meanwhile, former FIA Technical Director Tim Goss will become Chief Technical Officer in October.
Guillaume Cattelani will also arrive from Red Bull, becoming the new Deputy Technical Director. However, Mekies’ recruitment campaign is not over yet.
Strong interest is being shown in Haas’ Head of Chassis Engineering, Matteo Piraccini.
The Italian engineer worked for almost ten years in Faenza when the team was called Toro Rosso. He worked alongside Laurent Mekies, who then took him to the FIA at the end of 2015.
Simone Resta, former technical director at Haas, is increasingly unlikely to join the Racing Bulls.
Racing Bulls: the VCARB will debut in Misano
The team’s season will officially begin with their presentation on February 8th in Las Vegas.
This location was not chosen by chance but instead a byproduct of their partnership with Ford – which starts officially in 2026. Red Bull’s aim is to gain even more visibility in the States.
However, there will be very little of the 2024 car. The presentation will mainly concern the new livery, accompanied by new sponsors that will appear on a show car.
F1 presentations are increasingly designed to showcase liveries and sponsors, much less the actual cars that will take to the track at the end of February in Bahrain.
Last year’s AT04 began its transition towards the Red Bull philosophy in Singapore. With suspension mechanics entirely sourced from Milton Keynes, the car driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will clearly have a more oriented footprint towards the aerodynamic platform of the RB19. However, it will also maintain its own design identity.
The VCARB will take to the track for the first time on February 12th in Misano.
The team will complete the first of the two filming days allocated by the FIA. Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will be able to taste the qualities of the new single-seater.
Only recently the pairing completed three days of training in Imola last week on the old 2022 car.
Authors: Rosario Giuliana and Piergiuseppe Donadoni
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
