Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, Red Bull Ring, 2023

Tsunoda welcomes AlphaTauri rebrand and plan to mimic Red Bull’s car design

2023 Austrian Grand Prix

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Yuki Tsunoda has welcomed the news AlphaTauri will move closer to Red Bull in their design philosophy when they rebrand next year.

AlphaTauri already uses the same power units as Red Bull and other parts supplied by Red Bull Technologies. However Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko revealed yesterday the team will base their car’s design more closely on that used by the reigning champions in future.

“The orientation is clear: based on Red Bull Racing, as far as the regulations allow,” said Marko. “Do-it-yourself constructions are the wrong way.”

Speaking at the Red Bull Ring ahead of this weekend’s race, Tsunoda said he was aware of the team’s plans to change its design philosophy before Marko revealed it.

“About the team changing, obviously I knew [there] will be stronger connection between Red Bull and AlphaTauri and it will be a lot changed before they actually announced it in the news,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans. “So I knew it.”

AlphaTauri fell to last place in the constructors championship at the previous race in Canada. Marko previously indicated he was considering a change in approach for the team, said Tsunoda, who believes it will “definitely” benefit them in the long-term.

“Especially [on the] performance side that we saw the last two years, it was not really in the place that we wanted, especially last year. Probably Helmut thought that we need to change something. I think he gave us a chance, one more year and it didn’t improve much.”

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Tsunoda believes the change is overdue. “I think it’s a good thing anyway having a lot more connection between Red Bull and AlphaTauri, probably it should be like that from probably three years ago. But anyway I’m feeling optimistic, more, stronger connection between Red Bull should be better overall.”

Marko also revealed AlphaTauri will change names again next year. It will be the third different name it has had since Red Bull bought the former Minardi team and entered it as Toro Rosso from 2006.

“As a name, I don’t know what it’s going to be, I just saw in the news that was actually the first time I saw it’s going to change. But anyway it won’t affect me much I guess so see how it goes.”

Tsunoda feels confident he will remain with the team for a fourth season next year. “In Formula 1 anything could happen so I won’t be fully [relaxed],” he said, “I’ll just focus on my race and see how it goes.”

“[It’s a] better situation for sure for me compared to last year.”

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2023 Austrian Grand Prix

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Author information

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...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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9 comments on “Tsunoda welcomes AlphaTauri rebrand and plan to mimic Red Bull’s car design”

  1. Is there 2 secs to be found in a name change ?? I didn’t think so….

    1. Facts&Stats
      29th June 2023, 15:18

      Title sponsorship by Sector Security Services will get them there.

      Ask for help if you don’t see it ;)

    2. It can bring more money though in various different ways. So, yes, it can bring seconds worth of pace. So, fairly pointless rhetoric.

  2. Coventry Climax
    29th June 2023, 13:17

    “The orientation is clear: based on Red Bull Racing, as far as the regulations allow,” said Marko. “Do-it-yourself constructions are the wrong way.”

    So how do you call the Red Bull A team construction then?

    Another chance lost for new, promising, young, maybe even female(?) designers.
    Ofcourse, there’s less and less to design to start with, in current F1.

    This is a cost cap driven direction, and, as an engineer, not one I approve of.

    1. It is also an interesting case for the cost cap rules – so let’s for arguments sake say that Red Bull has invested 100 million dollars in this years cars design and development and now they sell most of the design for a symbolic amount of 1 dollar. Leaving the soon to be renamed Alpha Tauri team with a handy amount of extra money to further develop the Red Bull design and maybe in return for the symbolic amount of 1 dollar they will be willing to share information about this extra development with their friends at Red Bull. I know it doesn’t work one on one like that, but it might be help full trying out certain design directions. Seems like a pretty loophole to me.

      1. That would be a terribly blatant and obvious loophole if they put it there. That would have been one of the first elements discussed when planning a budget cap – What is each transferable item worth as a baseline financial figure, for budgeting purposes.
        If it were the case, what would currently prevent Mercedes from selling their entire gearbox and suspension to Aston Martin and Williams for $1, or Ferrari supplying parts to Sauber and Haas for an equally tokenistic figure?

        And, perhaps more importantly, why would it be worse if Red Bull did the same between their two teams?

      2. Coventry Climax
        29th June 2023, 22:28

        That’s exactly what will be happening with all the A and B teams, if it isn’t happening already.
        You call it a loophole, I’m not too sure about the entire cost cap rules framework. But whatever, I disagree on your calling it ‘pretty’.

  3. Move the team to France and call them Taureau Rouge ??

  4. off topic ! Perez will not attend on Thursday because of illness. Unknown what it means for the rest of the weekend!

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