Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber: Alfa Romeo 2024 name change meaning and explainer

Joshua Mayne

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber: Alfa Romeo 2024 name change meaning and explainer image

Sauber Motorsport is operating under a new team name for the 2024 F1 season.

This year, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are racing for Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber.

The re-branding came following the departure of title sponsor Alfa Romeo.

The Sporting News takes a closer look at the name change.

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Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber: Name change, explained

There are a few components to this new team name, so we have broken them down:

Stake

Stake.com is an online casino and gambling platform.

The company was founded by Australian-based entrepreneurs Bijan Tehrani and Edward Craven, although it is operated by Medium Rare NV in Curaçao.

As a global company, it holds an online casino licence.

Notably, rapper Drake is an ambassador for the company and is regularly involved in the online promotion of the brand.

Stake was a co-title partner of the team in 2023 but now possesses full naming rights.

Kick

Kick is a video live-streaming platform that rivals popular site Twitch.

It is a relatively new venture, incepted in Australia in late 2022.

There is an existing relationship between Stake and Kick – it is parted-owned by Tehrani, while Craven is the current CEO. 

The platform has also been criticised for its "lax moderation and embrace of online gambling," per The New York Times.

Sauber

The addition of Sauber to the end of the team is a reference to Sauber Motorsport AG – a Swiss motorsport engineering company.

As a company, they joined F1 in 1993 as Team Sauber. 

Since then, they have participated under various names, including Red Bull Sauber, Sauber Petronas, BMW Sauber, and Alfa Romeo. 

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When will Sauber re-brand to Audi?

The current team name will only exist for two seasons, with the Swiss team to re-brand as Audi in 2026.

They will become the German manufacturer's factory team.

Who is the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber team principal?

Sauber does not technically have a designated team principal.

However, Alessandro Alunni Bravi is front and centre as the 'team representative'.

The 49-year-old has a long history in motorsport and was previously the managing director at Trident Racing.

He is also experienced in the legal field, having worked as general counsel of ART Grand Prix and Spark Racing Technology.

Bravi works closely with Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl – McLaren's former team principal.

Joshua Mayne

Joshua Mayne Photo

Joshua Mayne is a content producer for The Sporting News Australia based in Sydney, Australia. He has previously worked as a newsreader at 2SER and journalist at Ministry of Sport. While Joshua’s main passions are football, rugby league, basketball and F1, he will watch any sport that's on. He is still waiting for Arsenal to win the Premier League again.