Former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde openly criticized
AlphaTauri's new name on his social media X (formerly Twitter).
Going from season 2023 to 2024, two out of ten teams on the F1 grid underwent a major rebrand. One of them is the Stake F1 team (formerly
Alfa Romeo), which
already had its own controversy, and the other one is AlphaTauri.
Yesterday, a new name
for the Italian team was officially announced, along with its season launch date. From now on, the Italian team will be known as Visa Cash App RB.
This new name, however, didn't meet with the best response from the F1 fans on social media. Moreover, former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde joined the wave of criticism as he shared his opinion on platform X.
"I know I’ve just retired, so I don’t wanna sound like 'everything in the past used to be so much better,' but in my opinion, 'Visa Cash App RB' isn’t an appropriate name for a Formula One team."
In recent years, it has been a trend in F1 for teams to include their main sponsors in their names. Some examples include the
BWT Alpine F1 Team or the
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team.
By offering an exclusive spot in their official name, F1 teams can get even more money from their sponsors. However, every single team up until now at least kept their identity in the name.
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team is known as Mercedes and BWT Alpine F1 Team is known as Alpine. It is not clear what the name of the new Visa Cash App RB is. Fans are confused and not sure how they should even call the team.
"We’re getting used to F1 being commercialized, as it should (!) so for commercial opportunities I’m all in, but this just sounds like a name an Italian based team shouldn’t carry."
Formula 1's official website is called the team "RB." That would make sense, but RB is more associated with Red Bull Racing, and then it gets more confusing.
Some reports suggest the team is internally referred to as "V-CARB," an acronym for its whole name. Van der Garde added He can't imagine ever calling the Italian team by the name of "Visa Cash App RB."
"Anyway, maybe they prove me wrong - but I don’t see us talking in the future about that awesome team that’s called Visa Cash App RB…"