Ghastly name, strong techies for ‘VCARB’
The Formula 1 team formerly known as Alphatauri has been renamed Visa Cash App RB, but the relaunch of the
Red Bull junior squad was somewhat calamitous.
For starters, one staffer was too trigger-happy on social media so prematurely revealed the new name via the team’s official Instagram account. And, although Visa represents the arrival of another blue-chip sponsor, the final moniker has courted plenty of criticism for being too long, too fiddly, and too weak to be worthy of the top flight. F1 has been dragged into the mire for rubberstamping the final draft, albeit the championship itself has taken to referring to the set-up as ‘RB’ only. The team is also considering the ‘VCARB’ chassis prefix for cars created during this deal.
While the marketing department has taken plenty of flak, those responsible for populating the technical division appear to have excelled themselves. This will help Visa fare better than rival payment operator Mastercard when it took on title sponsorship of Lola very briefly during 1997.
Tim Goss, who quit as FIA technical director only weeks ago, has been appointed chief technical officer, reporting to new team boss Laurent Mekies. A period of gardening leave means he will not punch in until October. Ex-lotus and Mclaren aerodynamicist Guillaume Cattelani joins from Red Bull Technology as deputy technical director under Jody Egginton. And long-time Enstone employee Alan Permane, who left Alpine last summer owing to a disagreement with Renault management over the time required to transform the team into one capable of winning races, enters as racing director.
Team CEO Peter Bayer, also formerly of the FIA, said: “The appointments of Guillaume and Alan will boost capability in design and development of our cars and in performance at the track. Then, with Tim’s arrival in October, we will have put in place the key elements of a structure designed to take us on the next phase of our journey and ensure long-term success.”