The Faenza-based squad AlphaTauri gets a rebrand for the 2024 Formula 1 season under the new team name of Visa Cash App RB Formula 1 Team. The RB implies Red Bull, as it is the energy drink giant’s secondary team.

It started in 2006 as Scuderia Toro Rosso (Red Bull in Italian) before being rebranded as AlphaTauri to promote the group’s fashion enterprise. After four years, times are a-changing again with electronic payment company Visa coming onboard as the team’s title sponsor, promoting its Visa Cash App debit card.

Toro Rosso has been a training ground for fresh talent for the modern Red Bull Racing Team based out of Milton-Keynes in the UK. Multiple world champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen both started in Toro Rosso before moving on to Red Bull Racing.

Daniel Ricciardo also started with this team before going to Red Bull, followed by Renault (Alpine), then McLaren, and finally back to his original team.

This season also sees Franz Tost retire after serving 18 years as head, with Laurent Mekies taking on team principal duties. Mekies was previously chief engineer for Toro Rosso back in 2006. He moved to the FIA from 2014 to 2017, then onto Scuderia Ferrari in 2018 as sporting director, and finally again back to the rechristened Visa Cash App RB team.

Visa, for its part, will not only be the title sponsor for the rebadged Italian squad but will also sponsor Red Bull Racing and the FIA F1 Academy entries of the respective teams.

The team finished eighth in 2023 ahead of Alfa Romeo (now called Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber) and Haas. Driver lineup remains unchanged for the 2024 season with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda starting his fourth year with the team and Ricciardo on the other car.

It’s going to be an exciting 2024 season, which starts in just under two months in Bahrain.