SUMMARY
- Visa Cash App RB has raced with Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri in past years.
- The team has 2 wins to their names along with 4 podiums.
The Visa Cash App RB will join the F1 grid in 2024. However, this was not always the name of the team. Over the years, they have had multiple identities and accomplishments. The team has also had a number of iconic drivers in the past including Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, and Daniel Ricciardo.
The Visa Cash App RB F1 team will head into the 2024 season with Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda in their cars. The team is also the sister team of the Championship-winning Red Bull Racing.
The first team in Visa Cash App RB’s family
Red Bull’s sister team first came into the sport as their junior team in 2005, a year after Red Bull Racing made its debut. At the time, the junior team was named Toro Rosso. The name translated to Red Bull in Italian. The team decided to go for the Italian version of Red Bull as the team was based out of Faenza in Italy.
The team was meant to be an entry team for rookie drivers from the Red Bull Driver Academy. Once the driver gets enough experience with Toro Rosso, they would be promoted to the senior Red Bull Racing team. This system worked for the team. A number of young drivers came to Red Bull through this system.
The Toro Rosso name stayed on the grid until the end of the 2019 season. After this, Red Bull decided to have their fashion brand take over as the team’s identity. From the 2020 season, the team was called AlphaTauri. Along with this identity change, the team was also considered to be Red Bull’s sister team instead of a junior team.
The evolution of Visa Cash App RB F1 Team
Minardi > Toro Rosso > AlphaTauri > Visa Cash App RB pic.twitter.com/s0OXP2IAQH
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) January 24, 2024
In 2022 and 2023, the team did see much success. Hence, Helmut Marko decided to restructure the team Since 2005, Franz Tost served as the team principal for the team. He was one of the longest-standing team principals in F1. However, after the 2023 season, he decided to retire from his role. Red Bull decided to hire Laurent Meikes who was the racing director for Ferrari to be their new team principal from 2024.
Along with this new appointment, Marko also decided to rebrand the team. There were a number of speculations suggesting that the team name would take Hugo Boss or Adidas as their title sponsors. However, after the 2023 season ended, it was announced that the new team would be called Visa Cash App RB.
How many wins has Visa RB recorded in F1?
Back when the Toro Rosso was founded in 2005, there were not very high expectations from the team. Since it was meant to be Red Bull’s junior team, they were only meant to give their drivers experience before making it to Red Bull Racing.
However, a young German driver decided to change this when he drove for the team in 2008. before the 2008 season, neither Red Bull nor Toro Rosso had won a race. This changed when a young Sebastian Vettel drove his Toro Rosso and took the victory at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. This was the first race won by a Red Bull driver, and it was in Toro Rosso, not in the senior team, Red Bull Racing.
Following the 2008 season, Sebastian Vettel was promoted to Red Bull Racing where he went on to win 4 Championships. Toro Rosso on the other hand would not get back on the podium for the next 10 years. However, they did have a number of notable drivers during this time. Some of these drivers were, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, and Pierre Gasly.
On this day in 2008, 21-year-old Sebastian Vettel took an unbelievable win for Toro Rosso at Monza 🏆 pic.twitter.com/8gqQ7klzkg
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) September 14, 2021
During the 2019 German Grand Prix, Russian driver, Daniil Kvyat finished on the podium for Toro Rosso finishing 3rd in the race. This was a remarkable accomplishment given that their last podium was over 10 years ago. The celebrations would continue that year as Pierre Gasly got another podium for the team by finishing 2nd in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Following this season, the team was rebranded to AlphaTauri. This new name saw a remarkable achievement during their first season. Pierre Gasly was able to take advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s penalty and win the Italian Grand Prix in 2020. This was also the team’s home race, and it was the same track where the team got their first race win with Sebastian Vettel in 2008. Gasly’s win gave the team a total of 2 wins.
Why Toro Rosso remains a fan-favorite
Although the team has had multiple identities, Toro Rosso remains to be the most iconic name for the team. This is on account of the rich history the name has. The name has an Italian heritage coming from Faenza. Italy is known for its racing thanks to Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. So fans loved that the name was Italian.
The Toro Rosso name has also been used to achieve several remarkable achievements. Most of the iconic drivers have come from the team while running the Toro Rosso name. This is why the name sits well with some of the fans in F1.
Dad what was Toro Rosso like?
rip alphatauri & toro rosso 🕊️#f1twt #visacashapprb pic.twitter.com/tr4ZCuYqxv
— Formula 1 casual (@F1casualtakes) January 24, 2024
When it was announced that AlphaTauri would be rebranding, a lot of fans were hoping that the Toro Rosso name would come back. However, the team decided to take on a few title sponsors who had a lot of influence on the name.
Visa and Cash App are reportedly paying millions of dollars for this partnership. They will be hoping that the team makes some headlines in 2024. Visa has also decided to sponsor Red Bull Racing for the 2024 season. However, they will only be title sponsors for the newly branded Visa RB team.
It will be interesting to see what accomplishment the team makes with this new identity. Do you think Visa Cash App RB will be able to add to the total race wins by the team? Post your answers in the comments section below.