A Lot of Red Bull
Within less than ten months, Austrian energy drinks company Red Bull purchased its second Formula One team - now owning, effectively, a fifth of the sport's entries. But the implications of the Minardi buyout extend beyond a mere changing of ownership and raise several curiosities for the future: what will happen to Minardi's Faenza employees? How will the drivers market be affected? Which engine will each team be using? And what of that extra political vote? Adam Cooper analyses Red Bull's Formula One expansion
The last 10 months have seen an unprecedented wave of Formula One team takeovers, to the extent that an incredible 40% have changed hands during that period. The sequence was kicked off by Ford's sale of Jaguar to Red Bull, announced on November 15th last year, and was followed by Jordan to Midland in January, Sauber to BMW in June, and Minardi to Red Bull, finally confirmed on Saturday afternoon in Spa.
The Minardi deal was, in fact, done in an extremely short space of time, so much so that even Paul Stoddart could barely quite believe it. He signed an agreement at the Italian Grand Prix that basically gave Red Bull a week to inspect the books in Faenza, and if everything was deemed OK, the sale would go ahead. Usually these things can't be done in such a short space of time, but Red Bull sent in a team of 15, including lawyers and specialists from Price Waterhouse, and they did the necessary sums in record time. The deal was on.
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