The Weekly Grapevine

Red Bull's power

A year ago, Red Bull Racing astounded the Imola paddock with their triple-storey Energy Station, a 'motorhome' so large that, come Monaco, it would require its own barge and mooring at Monaco.

The construction - which offered offices, a 'public' bar and staff dining room on the ground floor, guest brasserie serving hip meals all day (and, say some, night) and meeting area on the first, and superb race viewing on the rooftop terrace - easily knocked McLaren's three-year-old Paddock Palace, the previous benchmark, from the top of the pecking order.

Shortly before then, of course, the Austrian drinks company had splashed out on the re-structuring of erstwhile Jaguar Racing - which even the Ford Motor Company had been unable to keep afloat, even with trade-associated sponsorships, without attracting vast flows of red ink - and by season's end Minardi, the purchase of which had, according to internal sources, been made necessary by the need to fulfil contractual obligations towards its raft of young talent, had been added to Red Bull's list of sporting assets.

In December, the ensnarement from McLaren of superstar technical director Adrian Newey, still (at $10m per annum) the highest-paid 'pen' in the paddock regardless of the fiscal aspirations of Mike Gascoyne, was announced effective 1 February, whilst rumours of a $6bn takeover by PepsiCo were contemptuously dismissed by Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, who, in fiscal 2005 saw the company in which he holds a 49% stake, achieve sales of $3bn (up 50% from $2bn in 2004).

Book-ending Newey's appointment were two spectacular parties. The first, Red Bull's first post-season celebration in Shanghai, was said to cost upwards of $2.5m; the second, which doubled as 2006-intro and launch affair for Red Bull Racing's RB02 and the Scuderia Toro Rosso STR01 consumed, somewhat fittingly doubled that. That was $6m spent on F1 parties without even a race in-between, or, as one journalist observed 'a third of Williams' 2006 engine budget blown without the running of a single competitive lap.

Adrian Newey © LAT

A lot of money spent on Formula One in just over a year by Red Bull, then, and, as this week's announcement of a bigger, better Energy Station (31m x 40m x 6m, and scheduled for launch at this weekend's San Marino Grand Prix) and the first race sighting of the team's 'Tree House' - a jungle gym-type structure joining Red Bull Racing's paddock trucks - proves, hardly the end of the company's spending spree.

The company argues, somewhat logically, that, with two teams, double the hospitality and management space is required, but for sure the total volume of 7.500 cubic meters of the structure by far exceeds that of Jaguar and Minardi combined - who drew on one-third that. So, excess or necessity? Both, in all likelihood.

Still, does Red Bull not at all have a financial pain threshold? Given that the company, now in its 20th trading year, allegedly works on gross margins of 70% (which, on last year's turn-over meant pre-tax earnings of $2.1bn USD, with sports sponsorships normally being fully tax-deductible); given that the company has no less than 600 sportsmen and women (covering most extreme genre) under contract; given that Red Bull last month splashed out $100m USD for the American football team known as the MetroStars (now the New York Red Bulls); given that the company ploughs fully one-third of turnover into marketing programmes (thus $1bn); given all this, the answer is: apparently not. In fact, in an interview last week, Mateschitz admitted only to a 'virtual pain barrier' when asked about his attitude to Formula One driver salaries.

Accordingly, the stubble-bearded Austrian refuses to rule out Michael Schumacher as a potential RBR driver, and dismissed the possible services of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen only on the basis that the former is 'parked' and the latter probably spoken for. Schumacher won't, of course, come cheap, but, clearly, that is no problem. Whether he will or won't make a move once his Ferrari contract expires at season's end is open to conjecture (see below), but forget not that this purveyor of sickly-sweet red drinks managed to achieve with Newey what a manufacturer of iconic red cars could not...

Following an in-depth interview with Juan Pablo Montoya, the latest issue of F1 Racing magazine reckons the Colombian could switch to RBR, something Mateschitz does not dispute. The 61-year old Austrian places JPM firmly in a category just below the super-strata consisting of the sport's three premier drivers, and on a par with present Red Bull pilot David Coulthard - who, ironically, was dropped by McLaren to make room for Montoya. And, as most team bosses in the paddock can testify, Montoya, shrewdly managed by former Ayrton Senna manager Julian Jacobi, is not cheap, either.

That RBR could be seeking a change of driver(s) come the end of the year is evidenced by pressures exerted on Christian Klein by Mateschitz recently. And, whilst he (still) speaks highly of Coulthard, stating that he is far from 'old iron', deep down Mateschitz must realize that the Scot is nearing the end of his illustrious career - so, DC and JPM at RBR next year; JPM and a Young Gun (Scott Speed, Tonio Liuzzi, Neel Jani?) thereafter?

Red Bull, though, surely realizes that winning world championships requires substantially more than owning one each mid- and back-ranking teams, employing Newey and possibly a mercurial Colombian, plus retaining a Scot nearing his use-by date and/or couple of talented youngsters, thus begging the question whether the FIA Formula One World Championship in driver, constructor or both guises is really the Big Plan.

Harbouring hopes of having Schumacher is no guarantee of championship success, either - as proven so graphically by his present employers Ferrari over the past 18 months or so - so could there exist in Mateschitz's indisputably sharp mind an even grander scheme. In fact, sources suggest that he would be happy with a top four constructors' placing over the next few years.

Dietrich Mateschitz © Reuters

Rumours have now surfaced that, far from being content with the quality and quantity of Red Bull branding broadcast worldwide via by the variety of sports in which the company has representatives - most forms of motorsport, including F1, WRC, GT, NASCAR, Touring Cars, Raids, MotoGP, Superbikes, Moto-X; football, both European and American; skiing; base-jumping, air racing plus a myriad of others - Mateschitz is planning establishing in-house TV stations broadcasting spectacular and extreme footage containing Red Bull images as 'wallpaper' to bars, sports cafes and clubs around the world - a sort of catch em whilst drinking strategy.

Should that be the case, and should he hope to include F1 footage, then Red Bull is sure to come up against massive commercial opposition from Bernie Ecclestone, F1's commercial rights' holder. But, the 76-year-old has been known to be swayed when the odd cheque surfaces, and with his group said to be facing massive expenditure on broadcast equipment as it gears up for High Definition Television transmissions - crucial to the success of any broadcasts Mateschitz may be planning - Ecclestone could well be persuaded to sell or lease Red Bull race footage to the company for an appropriate fee.

Persuading Ecclestone to do so won't be cheap (or easy), but in Mateschitz the F1 czar has an equal opponent - the Austrian, the younger by 15 years, has amassed his billion-dollar fortune in half the time it took the Ecclestone clan to become Britain's fourth-richest family, plus Mateschitz' powers of negotiation border on the legendary: who else could persuade the FIA to consider upgrading the rev-limit on V10 engines within a fortnight of STR's antiquated chassis/engine combo harrying Schumacher's Ferrari at Melbourne?

So, within the next year or so fans could receive their daily fix of F1 footage merely by visiting their local. The fact that they'll be seeing Red Bulls and not Red Cars is the pay-off...

The future of Michael Schumacher

The most in-demand driver at Imola is likely to be Michael Schumacher, and not simply because the German will be racing at Ferrari's primary home circuit.

Following revelations that Renault intends renewing Flavio Briatore's contract - and it was, of course, during the Italian's Benetton stewardship that Schumacher won his first two of seven world titles - and that Willi Weber, long-standing manager to the German, has admitted talking to Briatore about Schumacher's future, that all sorts of rumours have surfaced about a Renault/Schumacher partnership in 2007.

Then, to add fuel to the fire, Red Bull's 'Didi' Mateschitz has admitted to eyeing the German, who, in marketing terms, would be an absolute coup even if titles don't necessarily follow, whilst McLaren, too, could be interested in his services, particularly if Kimi Raikkonen moves on, as is widely expected, to Ferrari.

Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn, though, assumes Schumacher will remain with Ferrari, after making his definitive decision by June, "maybe even as early as next month (May)". Brawn's boss, Jean Todt, has scoffed at suggestions that Schumacher may be considering moving on, and that, it seems, is the company line.

Michael Schumacher already has personal sponsorship from Red Bull © LAT

The German himself is giving little away, save to state that he will decide by July, and that his future is linked to 'the colour red' - which, of course, does not exclude Red Bull...

All this, though, presupposes that Schumacher will not retire. And, given that he derives as much pleasure from the breaking of records through race and championship victories as he does from pure competition at the highest level, it follows that the former will be as much part of the decision-making process as the latter.

And, here, Ferrari's record over the past two years or so has been rather patchy. In the past 18 months the team has not scored a single victory on merit, whilst since Formula One's 2004 Summer Break Schumacher has scored but two 'real' wins.

True, most drivers would sell their grandmothers to score two Grand Prix victories in 18 months, but we're talking here of a driver more accustomed to taking 13 wins in a single year - as did before the downturn in 2004 - so a win every nine months or so is hardly likely to cause much salivation.

But, rumours of retirement have long accompanied Schumacher on his trips around the world. When Gina, his first child, was born, they surfaced; then along came Mick, accompanied by even more rumours. When Michael broke his leg in 1999, many believed he would hang up his famous helmet, but his famous drive in Malaysia killed that story before it grew horns; then came a record-equaling fifth championship and more suggestions of retirement. Ditto after his sixth and seventh titles, and, more recently, his tie for the most pole positions.

At 37 Michael is the oldest man on the grid, but he is still two years and a kid shy of Nigel Mansell's station when the bristly Brit took his 1992 (and only) title. Michael, it seems, will be around for a while yet - with his self-imposed choices being restricted to Red Cars or Red Bulls.