Red Bull boss Mr. Mateschitz says there is no hurry to sell the Scuderia Toro Rosso. This comes after re-gaining total control of the team after buying out Gerhard Berger last year. Gerhard has suggested that his exit was to improve Mr. Mateschitz’s chances of selling the team as a whole and that’s easier done when a person controls all interest. Many in F1 believe there was a falling out between the two over the management of the team that saw Berger exit.
It’d be a real shame if the departure was over Sato versus Bourdais as Sato is apparently out of the running due to his sponsorship drying up in the economic downturn. That’s all just speculation of course and who really knows but it makes for great conspiracy and why not?
“There is no pressure on us to proceed with the sale,” he told Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten.
“If there is a potential buyer, he has to guarantee to keep STR alive and have the knowledge and funding to do this.”
He confirmed that Red Bull’s motorsport programmes are not under any threat amid the global financial downturn, and that the recent changes to Formula One rules agreed by the FIA and the Formula One Teams’ Association had allowed his company to reduce its spending considerably.
“The cost-cutting measures in F1 are useful and appreciated, we can save a lot of money by them,” he said. “For both teams we can save 100 million Euros.”
Mateschitz said that Red Bull’s primary business remained in good health, with turnover increasing by 13.2 percent last year and no decline expected in 2009.
“Our overall marketing budget usually ranges from 30 to 40 percent of our turnover,” Mateschitz said. “We can easily reduce it to 25 and we would still invest much more than most other companies. But this is only a possibility.”
