25/05/2023
NEWS STORY
Helmut Marko has ruled out the possibility of AlphaTauri being sold or even relocated, insisting the team will remain under Red Bull ownership.
While Dietrich Mateschitz was happy to finance two teams in the world championship, following his death there were fears that the new management might not be as understanding.
Indeed, a report commissioned by Oliver Mintzlaff, the newly appointed CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments at Red Bull, suggested that the team would either be sold or relocated, most likely to the UK in order to be nearer to its 'sister' outfit.
While Helmut Marko played down speculation, he admitted that the Faenza outfit had to improve, having slipped to ninth in the 2022 rankings.
However, speaking to Germany's Formel1.de, Marko says that all thoughts of selling the team, or even relocating it, have been dismissed, and the team will continue to run out of Faenza under Red Bull ownership.
However, other than the previously announced management changes, which will see Laurent Mekies replace Franz Tost and the FIA's Peter Bayer appointed CEO, Mintzlaff is seeking closer cooperation between AlphaTauri and its 'big sister', including the transfer of staff from Faenza to Milton Keynes.
"The cooperation with Red Bull Racing will be closer," said Marko, "also in terms of cost cap and synergies.
"With his know-how, which he has acquired at the FIA, Bayer is very important," he added. "Of course, this will also flow into Red Bull Racing.
"It was always clear to me that the team would stay in Faenza," he insisted. "We have all the infrastructure here. In England, AlphaTauri already has a lot of employees. The whole aero team is in England. And what we will certainly do in the future is, if we want to sign engineers but they just don't go to Italy, for whatever reason, they can then work from that base in England.
"I think that will help the team in the future because it was just very, very difficult in the past to bring experienced engineers here to Italy. Experienced engineers, they're like 35, 40 years old, they have families, they have children, and then they don't want to go to Italy."
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