AlphaTauri has put down the speculation which arose in recent times that Red Bull shareholders is looking to sell the F1 team.
During the course of the F1 2023 Bahrain test, German publication Auto Motor und Sport reported on the potential sale of AlphaTauri or the Italy-based outfit relocating to the United Kingdom, so as to lessen the cost of running the team.
As a sister concern to Red Bull, a lot of money come from the parent company which is already investing in one team. Despite the budget cap put in place, the cost is still there for the shareholders as AlphaTauri alone can’t raise enough through sponsorship.
Having finished ninth in 2022, it didn’t help their cause as the drop in income from F1 lowered when compared to what they earned in previous seasons. This led to speculation about a potential sale or relocation of its base which will bring it closer to Red Bull.
The likes of Andretti, Hitech GP and Mumbai Falcons were rumoured as the ones to be interested and the comments from Helmut Marko didn’t help, where the Austrian denied of sale but agreed that the results were not good in financial terms.
AlphaTauri has since released a statement to put down the speculation, noting that the new Red Bull head Oliver Mintzlaff is not looking to sell the team. He took over the helm after the death of co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz last year.
“I had some very good meetings with Oliver Mintzlaff, who confirmed that the shareholders will not sell Scuderia AlphaTauri, and that Red Bull will continue supporting the team in the future. All these rumours have no foundation, and the team has to remain focused for the start of the season to perform better than last year,” said team principal Franz Tost.
Here’s all the stats from Bahrain F1 Test: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-bahrain-test-lap-count-of-drivers-teams-times-more/
Here’s info on speculation and Helmut Marko’s words
Here’s Nyck de Vries already helping AlphaTauri
Here’s Nyck de Vries winning court case
Here’s AlphaTauri signing deal with ORLEN