$138 billion worth company Cash App was initially one of Red Bull’s biggest sponsors. However, since the mobile payment service company has now formed a new partnership with AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s history with the British-American organization could hurt the Italian outfit. An F1 expert has explained how this partnership could result in AlphaTauri suffering from lawsuits if they become successful from the 2024 season onwards. While speaking on the latest episode of The VF1 Show with VF & Vincenzo, one of the presenters explained how this new partnership could perhaps result in increasing suspicion from rivals that Red Bull and AlphaTauri are not functioning independently after all.
“Cash App was a sponsor of Red Bull and now Cash App is the title sponsor for an actual Formula 1 team. And so, it does increase the level of scrutiny with that relationship between Red Bull and Cash App AlphaTauri. It makes it kind of seem that they are not actually independent of each other,” explained Vanessa on the episode.
As a result, Vanessa believes that AlphaTauri is “not (in) a good place“. The presenter believes that Red Bull’s history with Cash App could hurt AlphaTauri as other sponsors will not want to continue with the Italian outfit if they suspect “cheating“. She believes that they will obviously not want to be associated with a company that is perhaps not clean.
F1 rules clearly prohibit two teams from having anything more than a commercial relationship. This means that although the same parent company owns both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, the two teams cannot exchange any technical data that would provide one of them an unfair advantage over the rest of the rivals.
Although the rules do not allow the possibility of any kind of cheating, rival team principals continue to raise their concerns about the partnership between Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri. The issue became a hot topic after AlphaTauri confirmed that they were keen to relocate their headquarters from Faenza to Milton Keynes, the base of Red Bull Racing.
McLaren raises “fairness” concerns because of RBR and AlphaTauri’s growing partnership
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has made his concerns with Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri’s growing partnership abundantly clear. The American businessman believes that the partnership of the two companies raises “fairness” concerns as no other sport allows two different teams to have such a close working relationship.
“I believe it’s a serious issue for the fairness of the sport, for the fans. That’s why it’s pretty much not allowed in any other form of major sport,” said Brown (as quoted by blackbookmotorsport).
However, AlphaTauri’s CEO Peter Bayer unsurprisingly does not see any issues with this partnership. Bayer revealed in an interview that the only reason AlphaTauri is keen to move their base to Milton Keynes is because of the lack of facilities available at their current headquarters in Faenza.
Bayer stated that their base in Faenza neither has a canteen nor has an adequate number of parking spots for its employees, for example. Another key reason Bayer gave was that the lease agreement for their headquarters in Faenza was running out soon.
Meanwhile, the last reason he gave is perhaps the most significant. Bayer believes that it has always been extremely difficult to convince British engineers to relocate to Italy, and as a result, they are keen to shift their base to Milton Keynes.
