Red Bull take step to improve AlphaTauri’s fortunes with arrival of new Head of Commercial
Red Bull have taken steps to address AlphaTauri’s financial underperformance after signing Lars Stegelmann to a new Head of Commercial role.
The AlphaTauri team is going through one of the toughest spells in its existence right now, that also including the days under its past identity of Toro Rosso.
AlphaTauri slipped to P9 in the 2022 Constructors’ Championship with just 35 points scored, comfortably their poorest tally and finishing position since the rebrand, and the situation remains alarming at the start of F1 2023.
Two rounds into the new season and AlphaTauri are yet to score a point, a pair of P11 finishes for Yuki Tsunoda their best results, while both cars were eliminated in Q1 at the most recent outing, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Red Bull and AlphaTauri advisor Helmut Marko has said that AlphaTauri are not meeting expectations on the track, though rather worryingly revealed recently that the team is also underperforming financially as well.
Nonetheless, Marko re-affirmed that the AlphaTauri team is not for sale, and a big step has been taken to try and boost the financial performance of the team and fashion brand by bringing Stegelmann into the fold.
Stegelmann’s past experience in the commercial, sales and marketing sectors covers not only various motorsport categories like DTM and Formula E, but also football too having worked with European football governing body UEFA, while he also conducted sales work as part of the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup.
Stegelmann’s newly-created role will see him take charge of the ‘Global Partnership Acquisition’ at the team and its fashion division, as the team and brand look to start posting some more encouraging figures on the balance sheet.
“Interest in Formula 1 has developed extremely well. With the support of Lars, we also want to develop our commercial activities,” AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost explained.
“He has an exciting mix of strategic know-how, international sales experience and a great understanding of the advertising industry.”
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Stegelmann added: “Formula 1 is booming and is offering companies excellent activation and communication opportunities, premium hospitality and awareness on a global scale like no other sport series.
“The various stakeholders, especially the advertisers and agencies, have been my clients for many years.
“The positioning of Scuderia AlphaTauri fits perfectly into the current times and offers a first-class platform for companies that want to appear modern, young and dynamic, digital, design and technology-oriented.
“I look forward to making my contribution to further global development.”
Marko will be hoping to see an improved display from AlphaTauri at the upcoming Australian Grand Prix, with the team’s highly-rated new recruit Nyck de Vries still in search of his first Q2 appearance.
While a sudden turnaround is unlikely, the team simply needs a scene-setter for a strong development programme that Marko will be expecting in F1 2023.
