Red Bull’s sister team have changed their name for the current F1 season.
In 2024, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo are driving for Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.
Nine syllables that roll right off the tongue…
The Sporting News explains the name change.
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There are a few components in play, so let’s break them down.
‘Visa Cash App’ is not one single sponsor – it is made up of ‘Visa’ and ‘Cash App’.
Oddly enough, both of these sponsors are separate entities in the financial sector.
Visa is an American-based international payment card services corporation.
They are well known for their credit and debit cards.
Cash App is a mobile payment service that allows users to transfer money via an app.
It is currently available in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Visa is one of the supported cards on the app, so while the companies are independent, there is an existing relationship.
As the sister team to Red Bull Racing, the ‘RB’ in the name signifies the connection between the two teams.
There were theories that RB stood for ‘Racing Bulls’, but team CEO Peter Bayer has since confirmed that it does stand for ‘Red Bull’.
“The head of sponsorship at Visa, Andrea [Fairchild], said in an interview that it is a bit of a mouthful,” he told RacingNews365.
“But the reality is that we said from the outset last year that we [would] move closer to the Red Bull family.”
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Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (or VCARB, for short) is the third iteration of the Red Bull GmbH-owned team.
They originally entered F1 in 2006 as Toro Rosso – Italian for ‘Red Bull’ – and kept the name for over a decade.
In 2019, however, they shifted to AlphaTauri, which promoted Red Bull’s fashion label.
VCARB is the latest name change for the team, bringing together two major sponsors and incorporating the Red Bull brand.
Laurent Mekies is RB’s team principal for 2024.
The French engineer has replaced the team’s long-time boss Franz Tost, who stepped down at the end of last season.
Mekies was previously the sporting director at Ferrari.