Visa Cash App RB: Sellout or symbiotic relationship? Behind the Formula 1 team's new name

AOL Time Warner Taco Bell U.S. Government long distance is the phone service that Maya Rudolph's character, Rita, tries to use in the 2006 film, "Idiocracy." The movie is a spoof about how intelligence level deteriorates abysmally in the future when mankind loses its humanity in exchange for instant gratification.

Enter: Visa Cash App RB.

Red Bull Racing's junior Formula 1 team got a rebrand as Visa Cash App RB this offseason and was renamed after the two title sponsors and an abbreviation of the energy drink, which has carved a lane as one of the elite sponsors in action and motorsports. No affiliation to Arby's.

Visa Cash App RB gets its first taste of F1 action this weekend at the 2024 season opener, the Bahrain Grand Prix. Daniel Ricciardo impressed on Thursday by finishing with the fastest time in the event's first practice.

What fans were not thrilled about was the Visa Cash App RB name when it was revealed in January. The moniker replaced AlphaTauri, which was the second iteration of the team after it was founded as Toro Rosso in 2006. The criticism was in line with previous concerns about the growth of the sport in the United States, accusing Liberty Media, the company that owns Formula 1, of trading in tradition and pageantry for money grabs.

What's a more obvious money grab than naming a Formula 1 team after a credit card company and a money exchange app?

Executives explain Visa Cash App RB Formula 1 team name

Members of Visa Cash App RB had their answers ready at the team's livery reveal last month in Las Vegas where they soaked in Super Bowl weekend and their own celebration of a new chapter.

“We know that F1 fans are very discerning. So when the name was revealed, there was definitely a ton of conversation," Catherine Ferdon, Cash App's head of brand marketing, told USA TODAY Sports, "which we were excited to see people so engaged about. But I think the name is really just to crystallize the strong partnership that we have with Visa and really put ourselves at the forefront of the sport that we really believe in. We’re glad to be front and center in the name and we think the more you see tonight and the more that the season plays out, we think it’ll really roll off the tongue.”

Visa and Cash App have already been longtime partners, working together on the Cash App Card, a debit card for users of the app to store and use their money. Cash App has been a Red Bull Racing sponsor since 2021. That year, Megan Thee Stallion attended the United States Grand Prix as a Cash App brand partner. She went viral after her bodyguard refused to let famed F1 reporter Martin Brundle speak to her on the grid walk.

This is Visa's first global sports partnership in more than 15 years. The credit card company already sponsors the NFL, Olympics, Paralympics and FIFA World Cup and felt it was the right time to expand.

"Formula 1 has become such a draw for younger audiences and it just is really an exciting time to be involved with the property," Andrea Fairchild, Visa's senior vice president of global sponsorship strategy, told USA TODAY Sports. "... It just was the right time. It was time for us to really get involved and diversify our sponsorship portfolio a bit more."

In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of Netflix's "Drive to Survive" series, Formula 1's social media engagement grew 99 percent. It's factors like these that get companies like Visa interested.

"Being a global brand, it’s finding a global partnership that really fits kind of with all that we’re wanting to do," Fairchild continued, pointing out the sponsorship of a car in the F1 Academy for women as another key element of the deal. "Now, everything from a social media perspective that is growing and continuing to grow, this property certainly gave us the opportunity to really kind of build on that as well.”

Visa Cash App RB furthers growth of Formula 1 in United States

Both Visa and Cash App are headquartered in San Francisco. Partnering with the Faenza, Italy-based team furthers the symbiotic relationship between Formula 1 and the United States, where there are now three races: Austin, Miami and Las Vegas. Red Bull Racing brought on Austin-based tech company Oracle as a title sponsor in 2022. Last season, Haas, the only American-owned team on the grid, welcomed Dallas-based cash exchange company Moneygram as a title sponsor and also has Denver-founded, Newport Beach-headquartered Chipotle on its sponsor roster.

“If I look back maybe just a few years ago, the idea of having two global companies like Visa and Cash App wanting to come to Formula 1, would already be huge," Visa Cash App RB team principal Laurent Mekies told USA TODAY Sports. "... These companies, they want to come to Formula 1 and be on our team, but they want to be so closely associated with the identity of the team, I think it’s the best possible use for us, for the sport and I hope as well for the fans to understand how strong is the growth of the sport is."

When the car that Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will drive, the VCARB 01, was revealed at the event, it was a sleek design of navy blue and silver. Many fans said it reminded them of Toro Rosso, which helped alleviate the sour taste of the name.

Teamwork, like that between Visa and Cash App, is required to make a Formula 1 team successful. Perhaps that's one of many ways the name kind of sort of makes sense.

“Cash App embodies some of the tenets that F1 embodies in terms of speed and safety and best-in-class technology," Ferdon said. "So I think those parallels, they may not be totally evident at first, but for us, it’s super clear.”