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Red Bull buys Minardi - confirmed
Friend in the paddock at Spa works for F1 Racing Magazine and has texted me that its just been officially announced. Details TBC
Comments
Seems that no decision has been made yet regarding the name so we can hope for the best.
Maybe Doornbos can stay with the team next year. Horner is a big fan of him.
At any rate this means the team is now in the camp of the group wishing to essentially keep the status quo which has seriously exacerbated the money issues which have been hashed over ad nauseum here.
and whether it's fondmetal minardi or european minardi or red bull minardi is not a big issue
Offical statement from REDBULL
SEPTEMBER 10, 2005
Red Bull confirms Minardi purchase
Red Bull has announced that an agreement was reached whereby, from November 1 Red Bull GmbH will take over all the company shares of the Minardi Formula 1 team and will be responsible for running the team. Red Bull will therefore run two Formula 1 teams from the start of the 2006 season onwards. The second team will be positioned as a "Rookie Team" and this and the current Red Bull Racing will operate independently of one another and compete against one another on the track.
Red Bull says that the reason for the move is to help Red Bull place its drivers.
"Red Bull has more talented drivers than it has available cockpits," the statement said. "This meant there were only two ways of helping up-coming drivers: either place them in other teams or to increase the number of cockpits available to us. After much careful thought, Red Bull decided to go with the second of these options.
"Looking at the current state of Formula 1 we feel that the second team will be able to maintain its current assets while also being able to generate its own income in the future, in order to become almost self-financing.
"This acquisition also means that Red Bull now has a second vote in any matters raised regarding the future of Formula 1."
This last point is very significant as it will now be only a matter of time before Minardi signs up to the revised Concorde Agreement. This may encourage other waverers to jump to Ecclestone camp.
Ultimately this will not really help the political atmosphere in F1 because the fundamental inequalities in the system will remain and so we are likely to see a year or two of calm and then more negotiations about what to do at the end of the next Concorde Agreement in 2012. By then it is possible that the Formula One group will be floated on the stock exchange.
http://www.grandprix.com/gif/gpnavbar_news_s1.gif
"The devil is in the details"
What will GCM's role be?
Will the Club structure still exist?
Will the name Minardi still exist?
Too many unanswered questions but I will say thanks to Paul for making sure Faenza was safe.
But had I know all I had to come up with was $35 million to buy he Team .....
Anyway it's almost 4:00am so bedtime for me, goodnight, aternoon or morning, where ever you are...
[Edited on 10/9/2005 by TasM]
"A bit of a shock to the team" he promoses more details when we get together tommorrow.
.... I have an idea cooking....
Pls RBR, keep the Minardi name and keep it in Faenza!!! And Pls give back power to GCM.
Next few weeks will be hell!!
that means that Scott Speed may have a seat... and he's a good kid....
again, self serving for me in the USA.
I hope they keep our name.
I just have to keep thinking this is for the best.
GCM with young talent keeping his name seems like a good fit.
I hope the boys in the factory are coping.
Interesting race/s ahead. GOod luck to our current drivers.:(
I was told the deal was made 2 weeks ago. The deal was orchestrated by Bernie and Max to get rid of PS. There is no concern for Faenza and the name will be changed. It was a truly depressing call.
I hope it was unfounded but certain things rang true.
Let us pray that the worst scenario does not come to fruition.
FORZA MINARDI
FORZA FAENZA
FORZA GIAN CARLO
SEMPRE MINARDI
This is the bit that scares. Let's hope it will be, but I fear it will not.
A sad day. :(:(:(:(
[Edited on 11/9/2005 by oznomad]
Firstly, with the team now being owned by Red Bull, Minardi's history for spotting great talents will be lost to Red Bulls history of plonking average drivers with energy drink money into seats. It's a situation like Benetton/Renault - unless Briatore manages you, don't think you'll be driving with them. This doesn't bode well for Albers and Dornboos. Here we have two mega talents, both capable of holding their heads up in Formula 1, but potentially both without a drive in 2006.
Secondly are the workers. RB claim that they will stay in Faenza and maintain everyone’s jobs, but they aren’t the most respected mob when it comes to keeping their word. I doubt they would be too interested in spending money on development for two teams, meaning Minardi could just become a second string Red Bull team, or a third string Ferrari!
And finally of course is Minardi’s legacy and fan base. Minardi are everybody’s second favorite team. To take away that ‘underdog’ tag and name the team something like ‘Red Bull Junior’ or ‘Team USA’ would change the team from the underdog to the dogs breakfast. I believe it would hurt a lot of people around the world, from Faenza (probably all of Faenza) and beyond to see 20 years of history brought to an abrupt end in place of a corny marketing ploy. Maybe it’s time Dietrich Mateschitz, Dany Bahar, Christian Horner and co. were informed that there is more to motor racing than motorhomes and trophy girls. At the end of the day, it’s the fans that matter and I think I speak for us all when I say the fans want to see Minardi!
Forza.
Plus I think Redbull did well by most of the Jaguar staff in their takeover. Their word will be true. Just wondering why they haven't mentioned the team name yet. For us it's a big deal and the involvement of GCM. But RBR have got to see the experience that GCM has, much like everyone else before. They're going to need him there I feel if they truly want to run them as seperate teams.