2024 Visa Cash App RB F1 car launch: AlphaTauri rebrand revealed

F1

AlphaTauri reveals its rebrand in full with 2024 F1 car launch, showing its Visa Cash App RB rebrand and VCARB 01 challenger: see details plus driver line-up and key personnel

Red Bull‘s sister team — previously known as AlphaTauri — has launched its 2024 F1 car and revealed the rebrand that now sees it called the Visa Cash App RB team.

The car, named VCARB 01, has been designed in closer collaboration with Red Bull, using more shared parts — within the F1 regulations — in an effort to improve the performance of a team that last year finished eighth in the constructors’ championship with 25 points.

As expected, the 2024 car switches to the pull-rod front suspension used by Red Bull. The images released show distinctively thin and aggressively sloping sidepods, in contrast to the bluff-sided designs we’ve seen from many teams this year, which help to keep turbulent air from the wheels from being drawn towards the car.

A blue, white and red colour scheme, reminiscent of its previous Toro Rosso branding, also diverges from rivals. The majority of the car is painted, rather than left with large areas bare carbon — an approach taken by the likes of Stake and Alpine in a bid to shave off weight.

The previously-announced name has already proved off-putting to fans and the sense of missing the party was only heightened by the team holding a “very special” Las Vegas launch but refusing to live-stream the action.

A press release described the launch of “dazzling” and talked of the new team principal Laurent Mekies — previously of Ferrari — being joined on stage by drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, while there was also music from Kendrick Lamar and rapper Baby Keem.

There has been debate over how the team will be known, with few expected to refer to the full, commercially driven name. The VCARB acronym, or simpoly RB have been the most common suggestions, and the team may be erring towards the former, given its chosen name for the car.

Visa 3
Visa Cash App RB side view
VCARB 01 launch image overhead view

Visa Cash App RB 2024 car launch live stream

Despite launching the VCARB 01 in Las Vegas in a star-studded show, there was no live stream of the event. The only video footage so far has been a clip  showcasing the car and drivers, shown at the top of the page.

 

2023: a season of slow progression

Red BUll Tsunoda Lawson

Lawson leads Tsunoda at Suzuka — the future of Red Bull and AlphaTauri?

Red Bull

AlphaTauri underwent a season of change in 2023 as it experimented with three different driver line-ups. The first aimed to take advantage of youth, as Nyck de Vries replaced the departing Pierre Gasly after an impressive F1 debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix. With titles in F2 and Formula E, the Dutchman was expected to lead the team alongside Tsunoda, but instead struggled to find any pace or consistency — resulting in an early exit from the series just 10 races into the 2023 campaign.

From the archive

Red Bull third driver Daniel Ricciardo was an obvious replacement but similarly struggled due to the underperformance of the AT04 which was “incredibly difficult to drive”. Single point finishes in Australia, Azerbaijan and Belgium were considered the limit of what the team could achieve ahead of the summer break, but their fortunes quickly changed.

In a strange practice accident ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, Ricciardo broke his hand and was ruled out of action for the next two months. Liam Lawson was quickly called in as the Aussie’s replacement and impressed almost immediately: finishing 13th on debut at Zandvoort, 11th at Monza, ninth in Singapore, 11th in Japan and 17th in Qatar. Despite his efforts, the Kiwi was not rewarded for a full-time seat for 2024, as Red Bull decided to re-hire Ricciardo and Tsunoda while keeping Lawson on the sidelines in a reserve role.

With its full-time line-up reunited at COTA, AlphaTauri suddenly found some upward trajectory in its development which would ultimately allow the team to score valuable points in the closing stages of the season. The Mexico City Grand Prix was a highlight, as the returning Ricciardo qualified fourth and finished seventh.

The team eventually finished eighth in the constructors’ standings ahead of Alfa Romeo and Haas, and looks to be on more solid ground heading into 2024.

 

2024: A better future led by Red Bull

Red Bull possesses a unique advantage on the grid as the owner and operator of two F1 constructors, and the teams will work more closely together in 2024 to cut costs and in an effort to improve the performance of VCARB.

Under the supervision on new CEO Peter Bayer and team principal Laurent Mekies, VCARB will utilise as many design concepts from the RB19 as possible, with some of the team based on the Red Bull campus.

Engineers began using Red Bull’s wind tunnel in 2022, and familiarity should help to improve developments further into 2024.

As for the drivers, both Tsunoda and Ricciardo showed moments of genius over the course of the 2023 season and their continued development could not only elevate the team’s position in the running order but also their own standing on the F1 grid. Both drivers could be considered for a seat next to Max Verstappen, should their performances continue to impress.

 

2023 Visa Cash App RB F1 driver line-up

Daniel Ricciardo Yuki Tsunoda
  • Daniel Ricciardo replaced Nyck de Vries midway through the 2023 season and later signed a one year extention for 2024
  • Yuki Tsunoda was re-signed on another one year deal for 2024
  • Liam Lawson remains as the team’s reserve driver

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