AlphaTauri's new name: Toro Rosso, Hitech or Alfa Romeo?

After four years, the name Scuderia AlphaTauri will disappear from Formula 1 after this season. The rebranding of Toro Rosso did not bring enough to Red Bull - which owns the Italy-based team - so AlphaTauri (Red Bull's clothing brand) will change its name next winter, Helmut Marko announced on Wednesday. The speculation can begin: what will the new name be? GPblog lists some options.

Toro Rosso

After the Red Bull group gained full ownership of the Minardi team in mid-2005, the name was immediately renamed Toro Rosso, Italian for Red Bull. As Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing's junior team (and later sister team) grew into an established name in Formula 1. Illustrious drivers such as Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Jean-Éric Vergne and Sebastian Vettel competed for the Franz Tost-led team.

With Vettel, Toro Rosso experienced its heyday. In 2008, to everyone's surprise, the German even managed to win the Italian Grand Prix, the only win in Formula 1 for Toro Rosso. A return of the Toro Rosso name is the most obvious at first glance, especially as Helmut Marko hinted that ties with Red Bull Racing would be strengthened. As a result, part of the factory of (currently), AlphaTauri will soon move to the Milton Keynes area, where Red Bull Racing has its facilities.

Incidentally, the domain name scuderiatorrorosso.com is still owned by the Red Bull group.

Hitech

The very same week that Red Bull announced it was changing the name Scuderia AlphaTauri after this season, Hitech announced it had applied to join the Formula 1 grid from 2026 onwards. It is no secret that the current teams are not keen on the addition of an eleventh or even twelfth team. So it is certainly not a foregone conclusion that Hitech Grand Prix will be admitted.

A partnership with Red Bull in the current AlphaTauri team would be a smart way for Hitech to step into F1. Currently, ties between Red Bull and the English team are already very close. For instance, Red Bull juniors Isack Hadjar and Jak Crawford currently compete for Hitech's Formula 2 team, with cars that have the same colour scheme as the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

Hitech also announced it had found a new investor. The stone-rich Kazakh Vladimir Kim has acquired a quarter of the shares of Hitech Holding. With Kim on board, Hitech has the necessary financial resources, money that could be used to buy a stake in Red Bull's sister team. Should there be a partial takeover or cooperation, the Red Bull group will no longer be alone in financially maintaining the team currently called AlphaTauri.

Another advantage would be that Hitech already has its own factory in Silverstone, not far from Milton Keynes, where Red Bull Racing is based. Hitech could do part of the construction of the F1 car there, and then Red Bull itself would not have to build a new facility for its sister team. As previously stated, it is precisely the express wish to have some of the development and production of the AlphaTauri closer to Milton Keynes.

The Organics F1/Simply Cola F1

For those who did not know, AlphaTauri is the clothing brand of the Red Bull empire. By rebranding the Formula 1 team in 2020, Red Bull hoped the clothing brand would grow in terms of brand awareness as well as sales. Brand awareness is undoubtedly fine, but apparently, it failed to achieve significant increases in the number of garments sold.

Perhaps it is now the turn of another brand from the Red Bull portfolio to become the F1 team's namesake. Perhaps it will be The Organics F1? Or Simply Cola? No doubt Max Verstappen would find the latter name 'simply lovely'.

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo is basically on a farewell tour. The Italian car brand will (of necessity) stop being the name sponsor of the Sauber team after this season, which will transition to Audi's factory team in the coming years. Alfa Romeo - part of Stellantis - has already indicated it would like to remain in an appealing class in motorsport. However, it was added that this does not necessarily have to be in Formula 1.

Options in Formula 1 are therefore fairly limited, but Red Bull may offer a solution. Sauber was reportedly paid 100 million euros per season in recent years to be the name sponsor. For any F1 organisation - and thus also within the Red Bull group - a party bringing such an amount is welcomed with open arms. With tens of millions added, Red Bull no longer turns on its own for the high costs of a second F1 team.

Along with this, Red Bull have never made a secret of being open to entering the Red Bull Powertrains - the power units manufactured in-house from '26 onwards - in the F1 championship under a sponsor name. Verstappen's team will soon drive under the Red Bull Racing-Ford name, while Ford will have only limited involvement in the creation of the engines. A sister team based in Italy that would drive the Italian Alfa Romeo brand (and actually doing so with the Red Bull Powertrains) is not a crazy idea.