Good interview with ex FIA man and new CEO of AT Peter Bayer. Serious changes coming for AT as most of us have gathered by now. This isn't just a name and livery change. Exciting times for the team.
"Team boss Franz Tost enters his last weekend in Formula 1 as chief of the team this weekend in Abu Dhabi after he himself decided to step down. He will be succeeded by Laurent Mekies, who arrives from Ferrari.
Peter Bayer has also been appointed as the new CEO. His name may not be as well known to the general public, but in the F1 paddock he is highly regarded. The Austrian has extensive board experience in other sports, such as skiing and snowboarding, sailing and at the International Olympic Committee. Under FIA president Jean Todt, he was one of the leading men at the governing body from 2017 to 2022
"We've made amazing progress on the commercial side,” he said. “We have a new name for the team, a new identity for the team has been developed. In fact, we had the final approval of the shareholders last week.
“We had a meeting in Thailand where we agreed on global strategies and topics. So we're good to go. We have a completely new set of partners coming which is super exciting.
While the management personnel is changing, AlphaTauri is benefiting from the fact that F1 is hotter than ever. This is partly why Red Bull's new board, which took over from the late Dietrich Mateschitz, chose to continue with its sister team in F1
"There are two main reasons [for the changes],” Bayer said. “It all goes back to the discussion earlier this year, whether they wanted to sell the team. The interest was significant, a lot of equity funds are currently chasing F1 teams from all over the world, but certainly, in the USA there was a lot of interest.
"Once the decision was made by Red Bull to continue investing in the team, they saw an opportunity to relaunch the team, which was important for them. They were not particularly happy to have one team winning World Championship titles and the other team, at that time, being at the other end of the grid. So we needed to change something.
“Fans need to understand who you are and which team you belong to. And we didn't think it's ideal that the team is named after a sponsor. There should be an identity like we had with Toro Rosso.”
This decision will also benefit the fight with rival teams off the track, claims Bayer.
“We're fighting on the commercial side. We're fighting against brands like Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. We need a good identity and all of that together really gave us food for thought and allowed us into to start the process. So we want to have an identity and then the naming rights type of sponsors can add themselves, like you see up and down the paddock.”"
https://racingnews365.com/why-alphataur ... ders-agree
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Only 0.523 sec behind pole!