Why AlphaTauri may lose its F1 reason for being amid identity crisis

When Red Bull bought out Minardi at the end of 2005, it did so with a clear identity and goal as it metamorphosed into Scuderia Toro Rosso. In his official capacity as talent-spotter-in-chief, Helmut Marko had put together a band of a few junior drivers that he thought could be worth a punt in Formula 1, but there weren't enough seats on the grid for them all to show their worth.

In buying out Minardi, Red Bull had a ready-made 'junior team' that could serve as an apprenticeship for the drivers next on the conveyor belt with a view to moving up to the parent Red Bull Racing outfit. Although 2006's pairing of Vitantonio Liuzzi (who'd shared the second Red Bull drive with Christian Klien) and Scott Speed never made the move from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, the ladder eventually began to work out in supplying the parent team with talents. Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon all embarked upon the expected trajectory with mixed results, as Toro Rosso offered a chance to show their mettle and be competitive in the midfield. Of those, Vettel and Verstappen became world champions at the team, proving Toro Rosso's worth as the step between the junior categories and the top of F1.

Now known as AlphaTauri, having been renamed to fit Red Bull's clothing label, the team is functionally somewhat different to those Toro Rosso years. This will continue to change as the team tweaks its philosophy, and it's no longer going to be focused on giving young drivers a leg-up to the full Red Bull team, provided they can impress at the team. Instead, the team will likely opt for an experienced hand alongside a younger driver in its future driving line-ups, something which it has inadvertently carried out already during its mid-season manoeuvrings in 2023. 34-year-old Daniel Ricciardo, serving as Red Bull's third driver following two miserable years at McLaren, was drafted into the team at the expense of Nyck de Vries who, at 28, was hardly considered a particularly youthful future prospect - Red Bull boss Christian Horner rather uncharitably labelled the Dutchman as a "stop-gap".

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If the team plumps for the same pairing of Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda again in 2024, it will freeze out its young talent once more. Of those, the most recently successful juniors in Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa will be made to watch as their performances in Super Formula and Formula 2 respectively go begging.

This comes as the Red Bull junior operation looks set to jettison a few of its talents, as they've arguably failed to reach Marko's lofty standards. The likes of Dennis Hauger and Enzo Fittipaldi have won races in Formula 2, but have been solid rather than spectacular in a field that has been missing a sprinkling of star quality. Top junior Iwasa has lost ground to Theo Pourchaire and Frederik Vesti in the title race of late, while the likes of Zane Maloney and Jak Crawford likely need another year in the second tier to mature.

The original Toro Rosso duo Liuzzi and Speed didn't make it to the top team, but success would soon follow for Red Bull's youth policy

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Still, the Toro Rosso of old would have likely given Lawson, Iwasa, and co a shot at the big time. But conservatism has arguably beset the team in its line-up choices, and the recent firing of de Vries suggested that it preferred to have a known quantity in the seat alongside third-year Tsunoda. Would the team have taken a punt on a 17-year-old Verstappen with its current mentality? One would be hard-pressed to say yes, even with the lobbying from his management team that eventually made the Toro Rosso seat possible. While the current talents being supported by Red Bull are arguably less precocious, Verstappen probably would have been thrown into GP2 (or Formula Renault 3.5, such was Marko's general preference for the series) for a year or two. But perhaps that's a legacy of the superlicence point system's limitations...

The team is to undergo a change in management next season as team principal Franz Tost will make way for Laurent Mekies, who has recently left his Ferrari post. Ex-FIA executive director Peter Bayer has joined as CEO and has been tasked with creating a fresh image for the team. One of the first changes will be in scratching the AlphaTauri name off next year's entry list, with strong rumours that fashion giant Hugo Boss will lend its name to the team. The German brand, or indeed any other wealthy businesses looking to put their name to a team, is hardly going to sanction the idea of posing as nothing more than a finishing school for Red Bull's wealth of younglings. It will want to win races, and drafting in experienced names with an F1 track record is likely going to be a stronger pull for the marketing department.

So what's the point in AlphaTauri? It has not stayed true to the tenets it outlined on its entry to F1, and the team is about to sell its identity off to the highest bidder

One of the aspects of the team's reworking that should not be criticised is in aligning further with the Red Bull technical foundry. After all, the team ran Red Bull chassis until 2009 with minor updates to fit a Ferrari engine rather than a Renault. Given the declining fortunes of the team's designs over the past two seasons, it makes sense to take as many transferrable parts as are permitted by the FIA and reassign personnel to patch any other holes. In those previous years, running Red Bull cars was an opportunity to assess how prospective drivers could adapt to the same machinery until the rules banning customer cars were introduced. The team couldn't quite fulfil that to the same extent now, but the common characteristics that would be passed from one car to the other would offer some scope for junior development.

Unfortunately, that doesn't look quite like it's going to happen. It's hard to see a space open up at Red Bull until at least 2025 and, even then, the team is more likely to push the boat out and sign an existing driver to partner Verstappen if it doesn't retain Perez. Ricciardo would be approaching 36 by then, so he'd hardly pose as a long-term solution. That said, that the Australian is being talked about by Horner more than Tsunoda suggests that the Japanese driver may not be favoured as Perez's successor at the team.

The AlphaTauri name is set to disappear from the F1 grid in 2024 as the team undergoes a transformation

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

So what's the point of AlphaTauri? It has not stayed true to the tenets it outlined on its entry to F1, and the team is about to sell its identity off to the highest bidder. It's all very well to make progress, and the ethos that it marketed itself around in 2006 may not be entirely relevant in 2023, but there's no clear hook to the team if it stops funnelling young drivers into F1. Instead, it becomes just another team on the grid and one that it could be cynically suggested that Red Bull owns purely to have two votes in discussions over F1's future direction. If this was part of the deal with new Red Bull GmbH CEO Oliver Mintzlaff to keep hold of the team, then it probably should have been sold to an entity which actually wants to do something different with its F1 entry.

Most F1 teams have voiced their opposition to the FIA's growing interest in an 11th team, suggesting that they'd only be welcome if they add value, but surely the likes of Andretti and Hitech have more to offer than some of the existing teams on the grid. Alfa Romeo/Sauber may be treading water as it stands, but at least it has Audi support coming for 2026. Haas's reason for existence is also slightly unclear beyond drumming up exposure for its CNC machines, but it at least has not deviated from its path too much. However, AlphaTauri, or whatever it ends up being called, should have its motives called into question if it ceases to be a place where future race-winning talent can shine. That's what the team should be, rather than posing as a last-chance saloon.

The future remains unclear for AlphaTauri’s identity

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images