While Red Bull had teased that AlphaTauri would undergo another rebranding, few expected it to align with sponsorship causes. The F1 community has explicitly disliked the new name of the Faenza-based outfit – Visa Cash App RB. For a whopping deal of $20 million annually, the Red Bull sister team will now bear the name of these two finance companies. This is not something F1 fans like to see with the identity of teams, especially when the side’s common addressable name comes off as V-CARB! Now even Ferrari is tweaking part of its branding but just for its driver academy.
According to Decalspotters on Twitter (now X), Ferrari Driver Academy has now become the Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy for 2024. This name change seemingly ties the academy closer to the Maranello team and the branding of the academy gear and overall will also change accordingly.
The academy drivers’ helmets will now only see the Ferrari logo, which previously had the name ‘Ferrari Driver Academy’ as well to complete the brand ensemble. So, this is a subtle branding change by the Italian outfit, and certainly not a drastic sponsorship-based change like V-CARB or Stake F1.
Even Sauber, who parted ways with Alfa Romeo, unveiled their new identity for the 2024 and ’25 seasons. The Swiss team will be called the Stake F1 Team for the next two years before Audi takes over the outfit in 2026.
Fans and experts have been criticizing these moves by Sauber and AlphaTauri to rebrand their teams in such a way that takes away the core identity of an F1 team. While teams often include sponsor names in their full official team names, they have a name for common parlance.
For instance, the official name of the Silver Arrows is the ‘Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team’. However, everyone refers to it as the Mercedes F1 team or simply Mercedes.
Nonetheless, Ferrari is certainly too big a brand to take that route. The main name of their F1 team remains Scuderia Ferrari, commonly just Ferrari. Meanwhile, their Driver Academy has been a big part of their F1 journey, producing some top talents.
What is going on with the Ferrari Driver Academy?
Besides the brand name change, there is a leadership change at the Ferrari Driver Academy too. Former Williams engineer Jock Clear has taken over the young drivers’ program from the departing Marco Matassa.
The latter has reportedly gone to AlphaTauri (now Visa Cash App RB) alongside Laurent Mekies. Mekies, who left as Ferrari’s sporting director in mid-2023, will be the new team boss at Visa Cash App RB.
Just like Mekies, Matassa has previously worked at the Faenza-based team, and thus, will now return under the new identity. Meanwhile, Jock Clear has been an engineer at teams like Williams and BAR. He has also worked with former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello during his time at the Grove outfit from 2006 to 2009.
Who are the junior drivers of their academy?
Jock Clear will now work with several junior drivers in his new role at Ferrari. The Italian team’s academy currently has several promising talents. The most prominent name of them is British driver Oliver Bearman. Driving in his sophomore F2 season, Bearman is expecting to fight for the championship in 2024.
Many expect Bearman to be the next big talent from the Ferrari academy to make it big in F1. Previously, drivers like Charles Leclerc, Mick Schumacher, and even Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez have graduated from their academy.
So, Jock Clear has got the task to groom youngsters like Bearman. Besides the 18-year-old Briton, the Ferrari Academy has Rafael Camara, Dino Beganovia, Maya Weug, Aurelia Nobels, and Tuukka Taponen. All these drivers are competing in different categories of Formula 4, Formula 3, and Formula Regional series.
From these, Maya Weug has already secured an F1 Academy seat for the 2024 season, as Ferrari announced a few days ago. Weug will be racing for the Prema team. Even Aurelia Nobels would hope to secure an F1 Academy drive just like Weug.
