Goodbye AlphaTauri, hello Visa Cash App Racing Bulls

Yep, you read that right. AlphaTauri changes name and from the 2024 season will be known as Visa Cash App Racing Bulls.

At least that’s what it looks like from the Instagram account of the Italian team who decided to change its username yesterday night.

The rebranding wasn’t that unexpected for the most attentive fans.

During last season, Red Bull made it clear that its relationship with AlphaTauri was going to change considerably and a new identity was to be expected. While the name “Racing Bulls” was mentioned quite often by media outlets, there were a series of rumors about who the title sponsors were going to be. The most consistent one involved Hugo Boss, enforcing the liaison between the motorsport team and the fashion world. But it ended up not being true.

In fact, just this month a number of fans realised that the website racingbulls.com, registered by Red Bull a while ago, was redirecting to visacashapprb.com, a web page inactive at the time of writing. It turns out that Red Bull registered this domain too, last October.

The Instagram username change seems to confirm the new identity.

Who are Visa and Cash App?

But who are the new title sponsors of the Italian team?

Probably, you already know Visa. The company is an American payment card services corporation, located in San Francisco, California. Basically, they provide financial insititutions with Visa – branded payment products, facilitating the electronic transfer of money. Visa is recognized to be one of the most valuable companies in the world. Historically, Visa suppoerted a number of sports events, like the NFL and the Olympics: Formula 1 is part of a broader and more global strategy.

In fact, the motorsport championship has an interesting advantage compared to others: it has a global and continuous presence. This partnership guarantees a constant exposure and the brand has the chance to be present all around the world.

On the other side, Cash App might be a new name to a lot of people, especially for those who don’t live in the US. Cash App is a peer-to-peer payment app, that lets anyone receive and send money from their phones (like PayPal). The app can also be used to invest, in stocks or ETFs, and buy Bitcoin. Last, but not least, Cash App offers a debit card too, which is part of – you guessed it – the Visa circuit.

Why these sponsors?

Choosing to affiliate to big names for the American market, such as Visa and Cash App is a strong signal. Formula 1 has made it clear that wants to grow in the US and having these kind of title sponsors certainly helps to look more appealing to this market. Cash App has been working to attract a younger and digital savvy audience and Red Bull certainly wants to take advantage of this.

Also, consider this: it’s not the first time Cash App is present on an F1 track. In 2021, the app became Red Bull’s official Financial Education Partner, giving fans the chance to learn more about investments and the financial world.

The previous sponsorship of the “main” team highlights the strong ties between the two of them, that doesn’t stop here. In fact, it was reported that a new marketing and communication team was born, with personnel coming from Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, now working together in Milton Keynes. The number of companies that want to be on a Red Bull livery grows and probably they want to make the most out of their sister team. In this way, they can make sure the brand new Visa Cash App Racing Bulls has its own sponsors and of course more money.

Now, we only have to wait how things will go on track.