Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2018

FIA confirms Alfa Romeo and Racing Point name changes

2019 F1 season

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The FIA has confirmed the official entry list for the 2019 F1 season, including the new identities of the former Sauber and Force India teams, as previously revealed by RaceFans.

Both teams have changed their entry names and chassis names for the upcoming season. Sauber’s team and chassis are now known as Alfa Romeo Racing, though the team entrant is still listed as Sauber Motorsport AG.

The Force India name has disappeared completely as of the new season. The team’s entrant is now listed as Racing Point UK Limited, the team name is Racing Point F1 Team and the chassis will be called a Racing Point.

Racing Point will hold a season launch event in Toronto on February 13th. Alfa Romeo will reveal its new car – the first for the Italian marque since 1985 – on the first day of testing, February 18th.

In his new RacingLines column, @DieterRencken asks why so many Formula 1 teams have changed their identity in recent years. Read it today on RaceFans.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “FIA confirms Alfa Romeo and Racing Point name changes”

  1. So for now only the parent company still carry the Sauber name. Looks like we will have another pair of red cars this year.

    A bit OT, but few months ago Fred Vasseur said that the Alfa name helps in attracting more employees. What kind of image does Sauber have for most motorsport engineers? Also, Alfa doesn’t seem to have any engagements in motorsport this past years, will the effect be the same if let’s say Hyundai or Peugeot rebrands Sauber?

    1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
      6th February 2019, 11:54

      I can imagine Sauber itself has the reputation of a somewhat stagnant backmarker/midfielder, and apparantly, being located in Switzerland isn’t seen as an advantage either

      1. @justarandomdutchguy

        I can understand your first point, but why Switzerland isn’t an advantage as an employee? The factory is close to Zurich and Switzerland looks like a good country if someone is to raise their family there. I’m from South East Asia, so I only can imagine Switzerland to be somewhat similar to Singapore, in terms of safety and quality of life.

        1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
          6th February 2019, 13:53

          Lots of English presence in F1. Switzerland might be a good place to live (AFAIK), but most teams are based in England or have a significant presence here (such as Haas and Renault)

    2. @okeptl my question is: does an F1 team really need to attract employees? I mean, is there someone who can work for F1 not willing to work for Sauber (or any other backfield team) because of the name? Isn’t F1 already… the pinnacle of motorsport? I imagine F1 HR having more supply surplus, not demand.

      1. @m-bagattini

        That’s the part I want to know as well. I remember the article didn’t mention about experienced staff, so I’m assuming he was talking about employees in general

  2. I’m nitpicking (as always) but somehow Alfa Romeo “Racing” doesn’t sound… good? I’m not an expert on Alfa Romeo’s racing history but isn’t Alfa Corse their usual racing name?

    1. agreed! speaking of branding, Racing feels like a weird complement for such an obviously italian name like Alfa Romeo.

      even just thinking about it, I can hear myself rolling my tongue to say Alfa Romeo. then I have to stop, change the language settings in my brain to english, and pronounce the flat r in racing…

    2. Everything is Racing now. Thanks the gods for no blockchain team yet.

    3. @fer-no65, they may have used the term “Alfa Corse” in some forms of motorsport in the past, but I do not believe that they ever entered a Formula 1 race under that name when they competed in the past.

      In 1950 and 1951, I believe that Alfa Romeo entered as “Alfa Romeo S.p.A”, which was the official name of the company. When they returned in 1979, they did enter as “Autodelta”, which was the official motorsport division of Alfa Romeo after it was incorporated into Alfa Romeo in 1963, as the team name for that individual season.

      However, from 1980 to 1985 inclusive they used the term “Team Alfa Romeo” instead, so the use of an English language term for the team name is actually consistent with Alfa Romeo’s traditional operations in F1 in the past.

  3. Adub Smallblock
    6th February 2019, 22:35

    New name, does that make it a new team??? If so, do they lose any share of revenue they may have earned??

Comments are closed.