Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz is apparently reconsidering putting his second team on the market following Sebastian Vettel’s win in Italy last month. The Scuderia Toro Rosso team have improved greatly in the past two years and while much of that is because of the hand-me-down chassis from Adrian Newey and the powerful Ferrari engine unit, one cannot completely ignore the fact that they are setting the track alight while parent-squad Red Bull Racing are not.
With a change in the rules for 2010 banning customer chassis, Dietrich Mateschitz stated early this year that he is looking for a buyer for his second team. The squad is part-owned by former Formula One driver and race winner Gerhard Berger, and the Austrian driver had hoped his relationship with Red Bull would continue.
Fast-forward six months and it seems Berger may get his wish. There had been talks with Ultimate Motorsport and Angolan oil company Sonangol, but it seems as though these discussions have been fruitless. Combined with the upturn in performance from the Faenza-squad and you can understand with the Austrian billionaire might be thinking of changing his mind. Add in the fact that the 2010 rules haven’t been finalised yet, and all of a sudden Rosso don’t seem quite the burden they once were.
We haven’t been informed about the new rules yet and it depends on what is written down there – which parts each team must design and produce individually.
We will see if an interested buyer shows up, but it might happen that we do not want to sell at all any more. Right now, I would say nothing is fixed yet. Dietrich Mateschitz.
Following Vettel’s win at Monza, readers of BlogF1 voted to the question, “RBR vs. STR: What Would You Do?”. 52% said they wouldn’t sell either team, while 26% said they would sell Red Bull and keep STR. It’s interesting that the fans can see the huge potential in the smaller of the two teams, despite the fact that they may have to build their own car after next season.
October 9th, 2008 at 4:30am
If I were in DM’s shoes, I would surely try and keep both teams, even if I had to see some of my share to an outside investor to keep it afloat. Having the second team gives them a chance to develop some very good drivers (as we can now all see) before they make it to the big-time RBR operation. So here’s to many more seasons of both Red Bull and STR roaming the grid and providing many good times in the “Energy Station!”