In 1980, after his own racing career, Giancarlo Minardi decides to set up an F2 team. After some successes, Minardi makes the switch to F1. The team works from the Italian town of Faenza, where the founder was born. With little money and the same number of results, Minardi will last until 2006, when the team will be renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso. Fourteen years later, Red Bull changes its name to the clothing brand of the energy drink manufacturer, AlphaTauri.
Now the name of the F1 team is being changed again. Red Bull has been wanting AlphaTauri to get a new name for some time. For the time being, there were no clear candidates to be the new namesake of the F1 team. Until now. According to Hungarian Formula.hu there have been several offers for the F1 team. Someone would even pay a billion dollars to buy the last runner in the F1 standings.
The candidates to take over AlphaTauri
On the one hand, the Polish oil company Orlen is ready to buy an F1 team. Orlen sponsored Robert Kubica for years and is still involved in F1. The red details on AlphaTauri’s current F1 car are courtesy of the oil company. Orlen does have a strong opponent: according to the Hungarian news website, Hugo Boss has the best chance of becoming the new owner of the AlphaTauri F1 team.
Orlen is well represented on the AlphaTauri AT04 | Photo: © Red Bull Content Pool
Since the death of Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, the vision of AlphaTauri has changed. Red Bull wants outside funding for the team, but wants to remain in charge. Hugo Boss would love this. The fashion brand used to sponsor McLaren and now does the same at Aston Martin. But Hugo Boss wants more than just dressing the drivers at press events.
In 2021, Hugo Boss boss Daniel Grieder (too bad his name isn’t Hugo) hinted that the brand has the budget to take over teams. The expectation of Formula.hu is that Hugo Boss will take over the AlphaTauri team on paper, but that Red Bull will remain involved in the background. That way both brands have what they want.
Response from Hugo Boss
For the time being, the fashion brand does not want to confirm anything. Our brand, Boss, is currently and will continue to be the fashion partner of the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 team. Furthermore, we cannot make any statements about the questions asked,’ they report. Should Hugo Boss take over the AlphaTauri team, this will happen before the start of next season. Motorsport.com expect the team to be called ‘Boss’ or ‘Boss Orange’. If so, expect a lot of “like a boss” jokes.
#Hugo #Boss #AlphaTauris #team