EMBAGROED: RB launches first car of new era at Las Vegas event

Red Bull’s second Formula One team, now competing under the abbreviated name RB, has launched its 2024 car at a late-night event in Las Vegas.

The rebranded team, which competed as AlphaTauri between 2020 and 2023, unveiled the new VCARB 01 with a revised blue, white and red colourway.

Performances from Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem followed the launch, which took place at a venue on The Strip.

New title partners Visa and CashApp feature prominently on the car along with Hugo Boss sponsorship.

The team, which featured an online identity crisis last month when it changed its name from Scuderia AlphaTauri to Visa Cash App RB, is attempting to appeal to a younger audience while also moving up the grid this year.

The name RB is an abbreviation of the team’s new company name, Racing Bulls S.p.A., but the marketing spin from Red Bull has been to push its sponsors’ names and RB after the use of Racing Bulls was met with resistance internally.

RB will have a closer relationship with the senior Red Bull team this year and move some of its operations from its base in Faenza, Italy to Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom.

The new car, which has only appeared in computer generated images so far, features pull-rod front suspension from last year’s Red Bull — a departure from the push-rod design on the 2023 car.

The change brings the team in line with the suspension layout favoured by the senior Red Bull team since the introduction of the current set of technical regulations in 2022.

Along with the front suspension change, the VCARB 01 features a clear evolution of the significant and successful updates AlphaTauri introduced at the end of last year.

However, until the car hits the track, it is the team’s new look that is likely to garner the most attention.

The new livery appears to draw inspiration from the designs used on the team’s cars between 2017 and 2019 when it was last running under the Toro Rosso name.

Daniel Ricciardo will continue alongside Yuki Tsunoda in RB’s driver line-up this year.

Ricciardo returned to the team midway through 2023 after being dropped by McLaren at the end of 2022.

Just two races into his return, he broke his hand during practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, forcing him to miss five races in a row.

Despite the setback, the 34-year-old has made no secret of his desire to use his current position at RB as a launchpad to return to the senior Red Bull team should Sergio Perez not have his contract renewed at the end of 2024.

Tsunoda enters his fourth season in F1 with the team this year, although his future is also uncertain as his career has always been linked to engine supplier Honda, which is due to leave Red Bull for Aston Martin in 2026.

RB is under new management this season, with Franz Tost, who had been at the team since it first entered F1 as Toro Rosso in 2006, making way for Peter Bayer as CEO and Laurent Mekies as team principal.