Porsche poised to buy out RedBull
Discussion
ralphrj said:
The Joe Saward column from earlier this month speculated that Red Bull (the drinks company) want to sell Red Bull Racing (the F1 team) and Horner is looking to buy it together with Aston Martin.
The owner of Red Bull, Didi Mateschitz is old, so is his motor sports consultant, Dr. Evil* Helmut Marko. (Didi: 73 at time of writing, Marko is 74 at time of writing). You'd have to ask how much longer it'd be sensible to hold onto these jobs for those guys.Christian Horner is 43 at the time of writing, and having given up running Arden, he only has one other direct business interest than RedBull (he's the company secretary of a B&B/pub near Brackley, hilarously run by his ex girlfriend from years ago).
His only "promotion" can be to ownership of a team, so finding someone to buy out Didi is logical.
Aston don't have the money, VW group does (but is also running a tight ship due to group concerns) so I don't see either of those as very realistic unless lots changes in the formula.
*not actually evil, but definitely brutal in handling of driver talent.
Maybe he's looking to do a Brawn. Get Honda in to buy out RB, then when they fail to deliver and decide to leave at the next regs change, buy the team for £1 drop in the engine of choice, and boom, championship win. Then sell team to highest bidder for £fooktons, take a short retirement and then take a role at the FIA.
Swervin_Mervin said:
Maybe he's looking to do a Brawn. Get Honda in to buy out RB, then when they fail to deliver and decide to leave at the next regs change, buy the team for £1 drop in the engine of choice, and boom, championship win. Then sell team to highest bidder for £fooktons, take a short retirement and then take a role at the FIA.
In the last 25 years, the only dominantly-succesful guys have been Brawn and Newey.Horner has Newey on his payroll already.
I think the only interlude was the 2 years 2005/6 where Renault won with a combination of Alonso and the tuned mass dampers/rear weight bias/bespoke tyres.
Every other car has been a team and/or car that Newey or Brawn put together. It's staggering, if you think about it in those terms.
ralphrj said:
The Joe Saward column from earlier this month speculated that Red Bull (the drinks company) want to sell Red Bull Racing (the F1 team) and Horner is looking to buy it together with Aston Martin.
Aston do not have the money. They are already having to use Mercedes technology to keep up in the arms race. Andy Palmer is a great guy but his hands are tied on expenditure and that has to be focussed on the bottom line. They'll more likely stay in GTs and look closely at Formula E.I think that the move to Honda will accelerate Mateschitz's desire to exit the sport and the methods discussed around substituting sponsorship for team ownership over a period of time make a great deal of sense. Given such a scenario and given sensibly priced engine regs for 2021, why wouldn't VAG take a look at the costs/benefits of buying Red Bull?
Disco Infiltrator said:
Is the Energy Drink market not a little saturated?
It is massively profitable, which is why there are many entrants. Just a tiny percentage of the market can earn one a decent chunk of cash, I'm sure most of us know who own Monster, but I bet there are lots of people who are not into the sports they sponsor that wouldn't know.rubystone said:
It is massively profitable, which is why there are many entrants. Just a tiny percentage of the market can earn one a decent chunk of cash, I'm sure most of us know who own Monster, but I bet there are lots of people who are not into the sports they sponsor that wouldn't know.
Plus there is a lot still to do in Russia, China, India, etc. Jinba Ittai said:
It's certainly 'possible', but wether it will happen or not is a different matter. I was listening to a Joe Saward's podcast on Missed Apex and he discussed Red Bull withdrawing, a rumour which seems to be gathering pace. They would sell the team, but continue as a sponsor with a presence on the car for a few years and 'fade out'. Whether it's Porsche or someone else remains to be seen, things change over time. I genuinely think VW were committed to partner with Red Bull as an engine supplier until the emissions scandal hit and their plans had to change.
Off topic - the Missed Apex F1 Podcast is great. Well worth a listen, good lively race reviews and other F1 related topics, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Makes for a good partner to the Autosport podcasts, which are consistently excellent. I could listen to Ed Straw and Stuart Codling all day long.
Thanks for the tip, I was wondering what had happened to his contributions to SidePodcast.Off topic - the Missed Apex F1 Podcast is great. Well worth a listen, good lively race reviews and other F1 related topics, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Makes for a good partner to the Autosport podcasts, which are consistently excellent. I could listen to Ed Straw and Stuart Codling all day long.
Edited by Jinba Ittai on Wednesday 13th September 06:39
Edited by Jinba Ittai on Wednesday 13th September 06:39
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