Red Bull have owned two Formula 1 teams since 2006 but, while their primary outfit has enjoyed plenty of title glory, the sister team has changed guises several times and rarely tasted success
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Helmut Marko failed to rule out the possibility that Red Bull could choose to sell its sister Formula 1 team.
While Red Bull Racing have won six constructors’ titles, the energy drinks firm’s other F1 outfit’s success has been far more modest. Since Red Bull bought the team and renamed it Toro Rosso for the 2006 season, the squad has won two races and scored five more podiums.
And during that time it has undergone two full rebrands. The first, to Scuderia AlphaTauri in 2020, was to advertise the company’s clothing line of the same name, but it was not a commercial success. For this season, the naming rights were sold to two huge American companies.
But while the Visa Cash App RB F1 team has made a decent start to the campaign, thanks to Yuki Tsunoda’s seven points from four races, it is still far from a powerhouse on the grid. And there may come a point when Red Bull shareholders, who have considered a sale before, may decide the project is no longer worth the investment.
Red Bull adviser Marko didn’t rule out the chance that the team could be sold if an appropriate offer was received. “There are a lot of interested parties, but ultimately it’s a shareholder decision – the price is high for a team, but nothing has been decided yet,” he told OE24.
The potential availability of an existing F1 team may put Michael Andretti on alert. The American is in the process of building his own new outfit and last year received FIA approval to do so, though F1’s commercial rights holders refused to allow an 11th team to join in 2025 as Andretti had planned.
Instead, the can has been kicked down the road until at least 2028 and, with no guarantee that his project will be allowed into F1 even then, Andretti will need to consider the prospect of buying out an existing team instead of forming one with American carmaker General Motors through its Cadillac brand.
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Despite the rejection, Andretti-Cadillac vowed to continue with its F1 project. “Andretti-Cadillac has reviewed the information Formula One Management Limited has shared and strongly disagrees with its contents,” a statement from the organisation read.
“Andretti and Cadillac are two successful global motorsports organisations committed to placing a genuine American works team in F1, competing alongside the world’s best.
“We are proud of the significant progress we have already made on developing a highly competitive car and power unit with an experienced team behind it, and our work continues at pace. Andretti-Cadillac would also like to acknowledge and thank the fans who have expressed their support.”