Alongside experiencing new racing machines, Formula 1’s 2024 season is getting new team names as well, including the Visa Cash App RB and Stake F1 teams. Out of these two names, the Visa Cash App RB name has been the most ‘hilariously’ controversial one, due to its lengthiness.
Regarding this ‘lengthy’ rebranded name, VCARB CEO Peter Bayer recently shared his personal insights into the ‘controversial’ name.
Peter Bayer voices concerns over “a bit of a mouthful” VCARB name
In a recent interview during the pre-season testing at Bahrain, Peter Bayer, the Visa Cash App RB CEO, revealed the process behind renaming (from AlphaTauri) the Faenza-based F1 team, owner by Red Bull.
During the media session, Peter Bayer explained how the team spent hours trying to use both the sponsor names, without enlarging the name too much. After hours of planning, they opted with the Visa Cash App RB name, described as ‘a bit of a mouthful’ by Bayer himself.
Explaining the process, he started by saying, “I think maybe to go back in history, the Racing Bulls name is actually part of the Red Bull philosophy, they have the flying goals where Mr. Mateschitz [Red Bull’s founder] had his planes.”
“I think maybe to go back in history, the Racing Bulls name is actually part of the Red Bull philosophy, they have the flying goals where Mr. Mateschitz had his planes,” he added.
Visa Cash App RB — the former AlphaTauri team — understands the risks of its rebranding and is establishing a new identity that will be strong, according to CEO Peter Bayer, who's happy for fans to just call it VCARB… https://t.co/aeki7bEubb
— RACER (@RACERmag) February 9, 2024
Emphasizing on the ‘Racing Bulls to RB’ transition in the VCARB name, he continued, “If you imagine the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula 1 Team, you’ll be tired at the end of writing the article. So that was really where the idea came from to abbreviate Racing Bulls into RB. And to put that as a chassis name that, you know, simply remains as a sort of, you know, that historic element that we want to carry forward if partners were to change.”
Reflecting on the challenges of uttering the VCARB’s full name, he concludeD, “Yeah, I think that’s, you know, it’s something that we are trying to embrace really as a challenge. I think we are realistic enough that we cannot expect the media to continuously say Visa Cash App RB.”
From it looks like, the ‘Red Bull’ team really tried to come up with a good name, and eventually failed miserably at it, becoming the subject matter of the F1 world’s troll and frustration, in the process.
F1 fans are also frustrated with new VCARB name
Following Peter Bayer’s explanation regarding the VCARB name, Formula 1 fans soon took to social media to troll the name and express their frustration with it as well.
Expressing her confusion and dislike over the name, one fan posted on X with the finishing quote, “Play stupid name games, win stupid nicknames.”
so what are we calling the team formerly known as Alpha Tauri? VCARB is uncomfortably close to v-card so that's a no from me dawg. Honda? I vote for Arbys, personally. Play stupid name games, win stupid nicknames.#f1live
— Shannon 🖤💜 (@inadarkhallway) February 23, 2024
Another fan wrote the following, wanting to know how the VCARB name sounds like when the commentators utter it.
Someone let the commentators knows its VCARB i wanna hear them react to that silly name
— Zohaa (@LightninLeclerc) February 23, 2024
Two X users were having a fun discussion about the VCARB-01’s livery, as seen below:
VCARB is the best worst name 😂 I haven’t really noticed a difference with the liveries as there was quite a lot of black at the end of the last season anyway. I tend to do a very simplified version anyway since the drawings I do are so tiny I can’t deal with all the detail!
— In the gravel trap (@TrappedInGravel) February 27, 2024
Reflecting on Visa being a ‘credit card’ company, another fan mentioned that VCARB will be called the ‘credit card team’:
also they're saying theyre going to call vcarb "the credit card team" bc the actual name is fucking ugly 😭😭😭 https://t.co/teheiOWcv9
— nana ☁️ (@nanolendi) February 21, 2024
Visa Cash App RB should forget about the name for a while, as Daniel Ricciardo just topped the timing sheets in the first on-track session of the 2024 F1 season.
Do you think the ‘Visa Cash App RB’ name is really that frustrating to utter? Should the team rebrand into a different name from next season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
