Red Bull has decided against selling its second Formula 1 team Alpha Tauri, Dr Helmut Marko has revealed.

The 80-year-old Austrian admits that in the period following the death last year of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz until recently, rumours of a potential shake-up at the struggling team were not wide of the mark.

“We had internal considerations of what and how to do it,” he told RTL, “but we decided that Alpha Tauri will remain owned by Red Bull.

“But it will be closer to Red Bull Racing,” Marko insisted.

For instance, he said the current gap between Alpha Tauri’s headquarters in Faenza, Italy, and the rest of Red Bull’s F1 empire in Britain will be shortened.

Two new managing directors are coming – Peter Bayer and Laurent Mekies, from Ferrari,” Marko also told the German broadcaster ntv.

“We want to consistently see Alpha Tauri as one of the leading midfield teams.”

He admitted Alpha Tauri has been “below sporting expectations” for some time now, but the concept of why the former Minardi team was bought in 2006 remains intact.

“For Mr Mateschitz, it was always a very important part of the racing philosophy – because a lot of young people came to us via Alpha Tauri,” said Marko.