Red Bull undecided about AlphaTauri's future after sister team's "not satisfactory" performance in 2022 F1 season

Red Bull chief advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that the team is not entirely sure about the path it wants to choose for the Faenza-based AlphaTauri. The team has worked as a proving ground for Red Bull's junior drivers with most of thier key talents like Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, and Sebastian Vettel having made their way through the sister team.

Having said that, with the death of Dietrich Mateschitz, new boss Oliver Mintzlaff has taken over and there will be a discussion on how he wants to take things forward. One of the key points of the discussion appears to be the future of AlphaTauri's relationship with Red Bull. AlphaTauri had a horrible season in 2022, finishing P9 in the championship. Talking to the Austrian publication Kleine Zeitung about his discussions with Mintzlaff, Helmut Marko said,

"It was not the first time we spoke, but it was the first conversation about the future and how we want to approach it. We have the same base in mind and he has again learned a lot about the team. We are analyzing everything and we will see how to chart the course for the future. There is always something to do. We live by the motto: 'To stand still is to go backwards'. Continuity is certainly a very important ingredient for success, even if AlphaTauri's performance this year was not satisfactory."

AlphaTauri has been one of the stronger midfield teams in the last few years. Their car scored a podium in the hands of Pierre Gasly in 2021 at Baku and even picked up a race win in Monza in 2020. The drop in performance is surely alarming as the 2022 F1 season was quite disappointing in terms of results.

AlphaTauri is a testing ground for Red Bull

Not many would remember that Max Verstappen was pursued by both Mercedes and Red Bull before the Dutch driver chose the Austrian team. One of the reasons why Verstappen did choose Red Bull was because the team was able to offer a direct seat in F1 through their sister team, something that Mercedes could not.

Verstappen was able to make his debut in F1 with Torro Rosso (former incarnation of AlphaTauri) in 2015 and it was this key differentiator that helped the Austrian team sign the best talent of this generation. Most of the drivers picked by Red Bull have to prove themselves at AlphaTauri first before progressing to the senior team. If that path is disrupted, the growth of a prospect could get stunted and would not be ideal.

It will be interesting to see in what way the relationship between Red Bull and AlphaTauri will change, if at all. Red Bull certainly benefit from having them as a sister team, but consistent poor performances from AlphaTauri may jeopardize this long standing union between the two teams.