Red Bull’s planned rebrand of the AlphaTauri Formula 1 team has initially been concealed, although the cryptic “RB” chassis name indirectly hints at its true 2024 identity.
The FIA’s official entry list for next year’s world championship was published on December 15, listing revised names for multiple teams.
It includes Sauber’s revelation of its new ‘Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber’ entry after former title partner Alfa Romeo’s exit, and Aston Martin’s sponsor rejig with Aramco becoming the sole title partner and Cognizant disappearing from the team name.
The entry list also hints at Red Bull’s plan to rename AlphaTauri – the second time in five seasons it will get a new name having previously been known as Toro Rosso – but the real identity is being masked for now.
It has been known for several months that the name will completely change for 2024 but AlphaTauri still appears on this version of the entry list with one main difference.
What was previously entered as Scuderia AlphaTauri is now listed as Scuderia AlphaTauri RB and the AlphaTauri chassis name has been replaced with the same initials as well, appearing only as “RB”.
Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri have kept the RBPT reference to Red Bull Powertrains in their engine make declarations, listed as Honda RBPT.
‘ALPHATAURI’ 2024 ENTRY
Company name: Scuderia AlphaTauri S.p.A
Team name: Scuderia AlphaTauri RB
Chassis: RB
Engine make: Honda RBPT
This will not be the final identity as the entry list can change before the start of the season.
It is never permanently set, as team names have regularly been tweaked through the year.
The AlphaTauri name therefore acts as a placeholder with a full rebrand likely to be announced as part of the 2024 launch early next year.
Various names have been touted but ‘Racing Bulls’ is expected to be the new moniker, although the ‘RB’ initials are understood to not actually be a direct hint of the Racing Bulls name.
They are obviously the initials of Red Bull as well and have just been chosen to fulfil the mandatory entry list requirement for now.
The trademark for Racing Bulls words and images were, however, applied for by Red Bull earlier this year.
The words ‘Racing Bull’ were registered to Red Bull GMbH as of August 14, while an image comprising the words and a stylised image of a charging bull were registered to Red Bull GMbH on November 20.
It is likely that either RB or Racing Bulls will just become the suffix for a sponsor-led team name, similar to what was intended with Racing Point in that team’s pre-Aston Martin years with sponsors BWT and SportPesa.
