From Scuderia Toro Rosso to AlphaTauri: A look at the AlphaTauri logo history
If you’re familiar with the Formula One racing landscape, you might know something about the AlphaTauri F1 logo. But how much do you know about AlphaTauri logo history? After all, the company hasn’t always held the same name we know today.
Scuderia AlphaTauri, or “AlphaTauri,” is the new brand identity chosen for the Toro Rosso racing team. While the AlphaTauri brand is relatively new to motorsports, the Toro Rosso identity takes the group’s history back a little further.
It also introduces some unique branding elements worth discovering if you’re interested in F1 team logos.
Whether you’re interested in AlphaTauri as a racing company or want to learn more about why Toro Rosso changed its identity, you’re in the right place. Today we will look closer at the AlphaTauri logo history and how the group’s image has changed over the years.
Why did Toro Rosso change to AlphaTauri?
Scuderia AlphaTauri, primarily known just as “AlphaTauri”, is an Italian racing team for the Formula One championship, and a constructor. It’s one of the two core constructors owned by the Austrian company Red Bull, alongside Red Bull racing.
When Toro Rosso first launched in 2006, it also included the “Scuderia” title and was sometimes referred to as “STR,” a shortened version of Scuderia Toro Rosso. During these initial years, Toro Rosso was a “junior” team for the Red Bull Racing group.
It focused on developing the skills and racing abilities of potential drivers for the senior team.
Following a racing debut and some significant successes, the team branched out from the Red Bull Racing team in 2010, though it’s still owned by the same parent company. The name “Toro Rosso” was changed to AlphaTauri in 2020 to promote the fashion label from Red Bull of the same name.
Today, AlphaTauri is the “sister” team to Red Bull Racing.
Interestingly, the history of AlphaTauri actually dates back a little further than the Toro Rosso brand. The initial team was established when Paul Stoddart sold the remaining interest he had in the Minardi team to Red Bull in 2005, at which point the name was changed.
However, Minardi competed in Formula One for a number of years, between 1985 and 2005.
Is AlphaTauri owned by Red Bull?
Scuderia Toro Rosso, which translates to “Team Red Bull” was created as a junior brand to the Red Bull Racing team after the group was purchased by Red Bull in 2006.
When the team started competing in its own right, it evolved to become a sister team to the other Red Bull Racing group and changed its name to AlphaTauri to promote Red Bull’s fashion label. The group is still owned by Red Bull but competes under its own branding.
AlphaTauri logo history: The Toro Rosso logo
Depending on how you look at the history of AlphaTauri, we can trace the origins of the team all the way back to 1979, when the Minardi Italian automobile racing team and constructor were first founded. The group competed in the World Championships for 20 years.
Although they didn’t have much success in the races, they still acquired a lot of loyal fans.
2005
The final Minardi logo introduced by the racing team before it was taken over by Red Bull was a simple, effective wordmark, intended to demonstrate speed and strength. Like many Formula One groups, the logo included the words “F1 team” as well as “Formula One Team” underneath.
The red coloring for the “F1” component of the logo was taken through to the Toro Rosso branding too.
In 2006, when the remaining shares of Minardi were sold to Red Bull, Toro Rosso, or Scuderia Toro Rosso, was established as a junior team for Red Bull Racing. The logo created for the group was very similar to the Red Bull Racing logo, with the iconic bulls in the image at the top of the label.
The first logo was quite elaborate, with various swirls, curves, and other elements intended to demonstrate elegance. The typography was bold and engaging, presented in a sans-serif font with the colors of dark blue and red.
In 2018, shortly before the Toro Rosso team changed its name, a new logo was introduced, much simpler than the first. The unique emblem was simplified. Though the bulls of the Red Bull emblem were still present, they were depicted in a simple silver tone.
The logo font remained largely the same, though the colors were changed to silver or blue and red.
In this emblem, the additional elements and embellishments have been removed to create a label that appears more streamlined and succinct.
The Scuderia AlphaTauri logo
2020 marked a turning point for the Toro Rosso racing team. Following a number of successful years in the motorsports landscape, Red Bull decided to upgrade Toro Rosso from a junior brand to a sister team.
The AlphaTauri name was chosen to help Red Bull draw attention to its fashion label, and the rights to this moniker were passed onto the team.
Alongside the name change, the team invested in a complete rebrand. In this design, we see the traditional Red Bull emblem has been removed. However, there’s still a reference to the company’s parent brand in the bull between the two abstract letters of the design.
The unique shape in the logo is intended to look like an “A” in lowercase, and a “T” in uppercase, to represent the name of the brand. Atop the design, we see the word “Scuderia”, which translates to “team” in Italian. Below the emblem is the name “AlphaTauri”.
The color palette in this emblem has also been updated to reflect the independent nature of the new group. The red elements have been entirely removed and replaced with a simple white and dark blue palette. The simplistic but modern logo aims to convey both elegance and strength.
The AlphaTauri F1 logo: Colors and fonts
The AlphaTauri logo, as it stands today, helps to differentiate the group from its sister team and mark it as an independent competitor in the Formula One landscape.
However, it’s fair to say references to the Red Bull parent brand still remain. The name “AlphaTauri” isn’t just taken from the Red Bull company’s fashion brand. The word “Tauri” also conveys ideas of a bull with its connection to Taurus, the zodiac sign.
Set across three levels, the combination mark is distinctive and eye-catching. Often, it’s the core central part of the emblem which appears on Scuderia AlphaTauri cars. However, this aspect on its own is enough to convey the unique visual identity of the team.
If you want to examine the Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 logo in closer detail, you can find some useful resources here:
What color is the Scuderia AlphaTauri logo?
The Scuderia AlphaTauri logo colors have gone through a few evolutions, thanks to the rebranding of the organization. In the early days, Toro Rosso used many of the same colors you might expect to see in the Red Bull brand, such as silver, red, blue, and gold.
When the team branched out as an independent racing group, the Scuderia AlphaTauri logo color palette evolved to become more simplistic. The most common color used in the design is a shade of dark blue with the following codes:
Dark Blue
Pantone: PMS 2380 C
Hex Color: #20394C
RGB: (32, 57, 76)
CMYK: (58, 25, 0, 70)
Notably, there have been different variations of this logo created over the years, which depict it in different colors, such as shades of black and white, as well as red.
What font does the Scuderia AlphaTauri logo use?
There are two unique examples of typography within the AlphaTauri F1 logo. The core emblem used by the brand consists of two letters blended together to create a unique shape. This font style is unique to the brand and was designed specifically for the new identity.
The typeface used around the emblem for the words AlphaTauri and Scuderia might appear different at a glance, but they come from the same sans-serif family. The design is similar to the Cocosignum Maiuscoletto and Lulo Clean One Bold fonts.
The power of the AlphaTauri logo
As we can see from the AlphaTauri logo history above, while this brand may seem like a relatively new entry to the Formula One landscape, it actually has quite a significant heritage. The team dates back to the 1980s, although it only began interacting with the Red Bull brand in the 2000s.
Today, the AlphaTauri logo is an excellent insight into how a sub-brand for an organization can create its own identity. While the emblem still references Red Bull as a parent brand, the imagery is unique to the Formula One team and differentiates it from its sister group.
The emblem is simultaneously bold, strong, and elegant, with a unique appeal for racing fans.
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As Fabrik’s creative director, Stephen oversees complex branding programmes. He advises our clients on their tone of voice, creates logos and visual identities and crafts names for companies, products and services. Writing for Brand Fabrik Stephen reflects his love for logo design and visual identity.
