Horner rebuffs “amusing” rumours over AlphaTauri sale

Reports emerged in Germany on the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain last week that Red Bull – whose senior structure has been tweaked following the death of company co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz late in 2022 – was evaluating the future of its second squad.

This was supposedly down to the questionable effectiveness of a 2020 rebrand from Toro Rosso to AlphaTauri in promoting the fashion label.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko added fuel to the discussion by saying the team’s slump to ninth in the points last season was out of line with Red Bull’s simultaneous ascent to the top of the drivers’ and teams’ championship.

However, AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost then moved to quash the speculation on Wednesday, the Austrian having sought reassurance from Red Bull GmbH managing director Oliver Mintzlaff.

He issued a statement that read: “[Mintzlaff] confirmed that the shareholders will not sell Scuderia AlphaTauri, and that Red Bull will continue supporting the team in the future.

“All these rumours have no foundation, and the team has to remain focused for the start of the season to perform better than last year.”

This sentiment has since been backed up by Red Bull team boss Horner, who dismissed the reports as “amusing” and counter-intuitive owing to the considerable technical overlap between the two outfits.

When asked by Motorsport.com for his assessment, Horner said: “As we all know, there’s always plenty of speculation in this paddock.

“Of course, anything like that would be ultimately down to the shareholders and their commitment has always been absolute.

“So, it’s sometimes amusing to see how things get carried away. As far as I’m aware, there’s no changes planned.

“We have synergies and supply agreements with AlphaTauri where we supply various components.

“They share our wind tunnel, for example, as well. So there’s nothing planned.”

There does remain speculation over AlphaTauri’s future organisation, however.

There is a split of reports suggesting that it could either expand its current Faenza factory or relocate to centre around its aerodynamics facility in Bicester.

But that small Oxfordshire industrial estate is already well-populated, meaning AlphaTauri would have to potentially buy out local businesses or move up the road.