Racing Bulls expands to Milton Keynes, but Faenza remains untouched

Red Bull-Racing Bulls: criticism of the partnership

There was no shortage of controversy during the last pre-season testing sessions on the figure of the Racing Bulls (formerly Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri), a long-standing team of owned by Red Bull and 'younger sister' of the same Anglo-Austrian house. A partnership that has generated some concern on the part of the competing teams, as demonstrated by the words of McLaren CEO Zak Brown: “From what I understand, AlphaTauri RB is moving to the UK, and I think this is a benefit for both teams – he stated – the fact that the two teams have the same ownership worries us greatly for the health and fairness of the sport.”

In fact, what the rivals had not appreciated were the rumors according to which Racing Bulls, heir to Minardi and always remained Faenza after the acquisition of Red Bull, it would move to England, thus abandoning the Italian factory to further increase the partnership with the reigning world champion team.

No transfers. New infrastructure in England

However, the new RB Team Principal, Laurent Mekies, put all of Brown's concerns to rest. The Frenchman, former Ferrari Sporting Director, has in fact reiterated that the factory will remain in Emilia-Romagna, with part of the team staff which will however move from the Bicester aircraft plant to a new facility in Milton Keynes: “We have an excellent structure in Faenza and we think the base is very good to build on – has explained – but we are not satisfied with what we have in Bicester today in terms of infrastructure. We don't think we've put our kids in the best position possible, simply because of his history. It was a very small facility that outgrew it. We used our wind tunnel in Bicesterwhich no longer happens. We are building a brand new headquarters in Milton Keynes, outside the Red Bull campusand it will be a cutting-edge structure, just as we have a high-level structure in Faenza”.

In addition, Mekies added that the structure in England is also useful for its staff who are not interested in moving to Italy: “We will have more 'space', meaning that if we want to turn to the job market tomorrow and find someone who wants to stay in the UK, regardless of department, now it is possible to divide a single department between two locations and, with today's technology, working together – he continued – historically, in F1 it has been a huge disadvantage to do so. There are not many successful examples, we are aware of this, but we think that the world has changed radically, not only due to technology, but also due to people's mentality. We are trying to make this dynamic work and we think it can turn into an advantage.”