Red Bull’s sister team — originally called Toro Rosso — has changed its name several times over the last few years. In 2020, they became AlphaTauri. Four years later, they rebranded to V-CARB, with two major sponsors — Visa and Cash App — coming on board.
There was a lot of confusion about the Faenza-based outfit’s commonly addressable name. Major media publications were sticking to ‘Racing Bulls’ since it was the official name submitted in their FIA entry but the team insisted that they address them as V-CARB or RB.
Eventually, the community got used to it. Funnily enough, now, the bosses have come forward to backtrack and establish their identity as ‘Racing Bulls’ again. Naturally, this has frustrated top journalists in the paddock including Will Buxton.
CEO Peter Bayer clarified, “People struggling with the RB thing alone because some of them mixed it up with Red Bull. Others didn’t really know what it stands for. So that’s why we decided to clarify that.”
Buxton, however, did not think it made any sense. “This is a complete nonsense. We were all ready to call them “Racing Bulls” when that was the name put on their entry in 2024. Only at the team’s insistence did we fart around with the idiotic RB and VCARB,” the F1TV presenter tweeted.
This is a complete nonsense. We were all ready to call them “Racing Bulls” when that was the name put on their entry in 2024. Only at the team’s insistence did we fart around with the idiotic RB and VCARB.
Or MinRB (ref Minardi) as I preferred to call them. https://t.co/hZCGuR0cbH
— Will Buxton (@wbuxtonofficial) December 9, 2024
Buxton jokingly gave it another name: “MinRB”, drawing inspiration from Minardi, the team Red Bull had purchased in 2005 and renamed Toro Rosso. Nevertheless, it’s understandable that Bayer and his team want the outfit to be called Racing Bulls, as the Faenza-based team is a distinct entity from Red Bull Racing, which is why they opted for the rebranding.
Why did Red Bull change their sister team’s name?
Toro Rosso’s AlphaTauri rebrand made a lot of sense since it was Red Bull’s in-house fashion brand. From a commercial and visibility perspective, it was a welcome change, giving AlphaTauri a distinct identity on the track.
That said, the Toro Rosso name itself had a unique identity, as it translates to Red Bull in Italian. Given its roots, it became a fan-favorite name, although the sport got used to its AlphaTauri name in its four seasons of existence.
However, the partnership was not viable, which is why Red Bull turned to new sponsors to support its sister team. This is where Visa and Cash App entered the picture, with their condition for joining as partners being included in the team’s name.
After all, they were contributing a hefty combined sum of $100 million for the privilege. For a small team, this was a significant deal. However, they struggled to handle the name transition smoothly. The newly christened “Visa Cash App RB,” along with its acronym V-CARB, soon became a source of memes within the F1 community.
