Red Bull’s ultimatum to Alpha Tauri: move to England or sell

hard to think Red Bull without Alpha Tauri. Although they are independent teams in the Formula 1work together because the world champions have in their subsidiary team the opportunity to test young riders who they can then promote, as happened in the past with Max Verstappenthe current two-time world champion, or Sebastian Vettelthe iconic first winner with the brand.

However, the recent results of the team from Faenza –they were penultimate in the last championship– are not as expected by the energy drink company and its new sports director is willing to make a drastic decision to avoid losing money. We are talking about ultimatums: sell the team if the factory does not move to England.

Olivier Mintzlaff took charge of sports decisions after the death of Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, late last year. After an initial review of finances, as reported by the German media AMUSwho was instrumental in Red Bull Leipzig’s rise to the Bundesliga, he believes “AlphaTauri’s economic losses do not justify its business model”.

Also, Alpha Tauri is more expensive for the company than Red Bull Racing. In their accounts, the champion team in 2022 has the money to stay within the spending limit and also make capital gains. But in the team that was assembled on the basis of Minardi the situation is different because “100 million dollars less will enter the distribution of Formula 1 money, which forces the German Mintzlaff to put money out of his own pocket”.

Following this analysis, a solution that the new sports manager would have found is that of close the Faenza plant and transfer it to Englandmore precisely in Milton Keynes, which would reduce the cost of the structures and further favor this work of synergy between the teams in pursuit of the young driver development programme.

The other alternative would not be advantageous for Alpha Tauri because it implies the transfer of the team. According to the German medium, there is already a strong interest: Andretti General Motorswho has long wanted to enter Formula 1. The value could reach 700 million dollars and the offers are multiplying.

Currently, Andretti faces a trial before the FIA ​​which will be resolved on April 30. This is the term that the highest governing body of motorsport has given to communicate whether the applicants have the basis to start the procedures for a future registration. But if the Americans reach an agreement with Red Bull, since it is a direct purchase, that process will be ineffective because the intervention of the FIA ​​will no longer be necessary.

Alpha Tauri, which moved from sixth in 2021 to ninth in 2022, has lost its number 1 driver, Pierre Gasley, which went to Alpine. Instead, he took over nyck devrieswho turned 28 after making his debut at Monza last year due to the absence of Alex Albon at Williams and will be the youngster’s new teammate Yuki Tsunoda.