Last week, on the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, news broke in Germany that Red Bull, whose structure was changed after the death of company co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022, was evaluating the future of its second team.
The decision was reportedly due to the questionable effectiveness of rebranding from Toro Rosso to AlphaTauri in 2020 to promote the fashion brand.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko added fuel to the fire by saying that the team’s fall to ninth place last season was inconsistent with Red Bull’s simultaneous rise to the top of the drivers’ and teams’ championship.
However, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost made a decision to end the speculation on Wednesday as the Austrian sought to reassure Red Bull GmbH’s managing director Oliver Mintzlaff.
He released a statement that said, “[Mintzlaff] confirmed that the shareholders will not sell Scuderia AlphaTauri, and that Red Bull will continue to support the team in the future.
“All these rumors have no basis, and the team must remain focused for the start of the season to do better than last year.”
That sentiment has since been backed up by Red Bull team boss Horner, who dismissed the reports as “amusing” and counterintuitive due to the considerable technical overlap between the two teams.
Asked by Motorsport.com about his assessment, Horner said, “As we all know, there is always a lot of speculation in this paddock.
“Of course, it all ultimately depends on the shareholders and their commitment has always been absolute.
“So it’s sometimes fun to see how things get out of hand. As far as I know, there are no changes planned.
“We have synergies and supply agreements with AlphaTauri where we supply various components.
“They also share our wind tunnel, for example. So there’s nothing planned.”
Speculation about the future organization of AlphaTauri has not gone away, however. Read also:
Several reports suggest that AlphaTauri could either expand its current Faenza plant or relocate to focus on its Bicester aerodynamic facility.
But this small industrial estate in Oxfordshire is already well populated, meaning AlphaTauri would potentially have to buy up local businesses or move further up the road.
