Ahead of the 2024 season, AlphaTauri’s imminent rebranding has left everyone guessing. Despite pre-season testing being just a few weeks away, the Faenza-based outfit has still not revealed its new name. However, according to multiple sources including revered sports business analyst, Vincenzo Landino, their new name will be ‘Visa Cash App RB‘. This name was reportedly chosen because of their new sponsor – Cash App. The company decided to put in money into F1, and not other American sports purely because of monetary reasons.
Sponsorship in sports can be a costly affair, especially in the United States. For example, LeBron James’ ex-team, the Cleveland Cavaliers charged a whopping $10 million to Goodyear. On the other hand, Haas F1 team charges only $6 million from their title sponsors MoneyGram.
If you missed yesterday’s letter, we’ve been held firm to the belief that the ‘Visa Cash App RB’ name is what AT is rebranding to.
Specifically, ‘RB,’ not Racing Bulls.
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— Vincenzo Landino (@vincenzolandino) January 19, 2024
While the investment is relatively low, the returns are potentially higher in F1. The sport’s fanbase constantly expanding in the United States and F1 has become a haven for sponsors and investors. With Netflix’s Drive to Survive docuseries only gaining more traction, and the addition of three American races on the calendar, the sport’s stock seems to be on the up.
Cash App, a peer-to-peer payment platform affiliated with Visa, will not be a stranger to F1. Visa has already been associated with AlphaTauri albeit in their erstwhile avatar as Minardi in the early 2000s. Moreover, Cash App is already an established name in the F1 sponsorship game after their deal with Red Bull in 2021.
Formula 1: A haven for institutional finance
Sponsors in F1 have changed a lot over the years, depending on the era. There was a time when tobacco sponsorship was the name of the game. Soon, they started getting replaced with cleaner, white-collar partners. And the same has stuck around even to this day.
F1 and banks have had a long standing relationship too. For instance, today, one of the most iconic sponsors of Ferrari is none other than Santander, a well-known Spanish banking conglomerate. But even back in the day, one of the most historic and well-recognized sponsors was Ayrton Senna’s backers ‘Nacional‘, a Brazilian banking group forming Banco Nacional.
Ayrton Senna commercial Banco Nacional 1991. pic.twitter.com/xPGSBftz2P
— Raceliefhebber (Wouter) (@raceliefhebber) April 10, 2023
Team sponsorship is one thing. However, the financial fanaticism has also spread over to the F1 IP, too. Amex for instance conjured their first major sports sponsorship deal in decades when they partnered with the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
With AlphaTauri making radical changes to turnaround their fortunes, Cash App’s gamble on the Faenza-based team has a massive potential payout. For that, they hope things go well at AlphaTauri, or Visa Cash App RB (if that is what their new name is).
