Racing Bulls: Too Many Names, One Job

Next in our 2026 pre-season deep dive series, Formula Fools takes on the most confusing team on the grid — and one of the most important: Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team.

This is a team that’s changed names, identities, sponsors, and missions more than anyone else in Formula 1 — yet somehow stayed exactly the same.

David and Skin rewind to 1985, when this outfit began life as Minardi: a tiny Italian team powered by heart, persistence, and vibes. Minardi never won, but it mattered — because it existed to race, not to market.

Everything changed in 2006 when Red Bull bought the team and turned it into Scuderia Toro Rosso — a junior squad with a serious purpose: develop future Red Bull stars. That mission paid off immediately with one of the greatest shocks in F1 history, when Sebastian Vettel won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

From there came the fashion era (AlphaTauri), the branding confusion (RB), and finally the cleanest name yet: Racing Bulls. Through all of it, the job stayed the same — take risks on young drivers, feed Red Bull Racing, and occasionally remind the grid you can still punch above your weight.

We break down the team’s biggest moments — Vettel’s Monza miracle, Pierre Gasly’s emotional 2020 win, and the first-ever Racing Bulls podium in 2025 — while asking the question that’s followed this team for 20 years:

Is Racing Bulls building its own future… or just preparing someone else’s?

With Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad leading the next generation, and Alan Permane at the helm, this episode explores what Racing Bulls really are in modern Formula 1: a feeder team, a survivor, and one of the grid’s most important proving grounds.

They may not win championships —

but the sport doesn’t work without them.

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