Horner: AlphaTauri becomes a customer team

After four seasons under the name AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s second team will change names again, with Laurent Mekies replacing the retiring Franz Tost and Peter Bayer becoming CEO.

In the past, a lot of attention was paid to supporting the Red Bull youth program, the team was a youth team, then a sister team and now it is becoming independent. Red Bull Racing chief Christian Horner said AlphaTauri, whatever its name, will become a customer team with experienced drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.

Christian Horner: “Daniel and Yuki are Red Bull drivers, both can be called upon if necessary.

AlphaTauri is owned by the same shareholders as Red Bull Racing, but is an independent team. They can use our parts that are allowed by the regulations: gearbox, suspension and so on, just like Williams and Aston Martin get them from Mercedes or Haas from Ferrari.

They are based in Italy, but they have new management: Peter Bayer as CEO and Laurent Mekies as team manager. They are competitive guys, they both want to compete and move the team forward. They have taken up this challenge and are now a customer team for Red Bull Racing.”