Red Bull is said to have declined an offer estimated at 3 billion dollars for the sale of its sister team Racing Bulls, according to information revealed by “The Times”: an amount considered insufficient.
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The offer is said to have been led by Dean Attew, former collaborator of Bernie Ecclestone, and financier Andrew Harriott, with the support of investment funds based in Abu Dhabi.
Despite this colossal amount, the Austrian group is said to have chosen to keep its second Formula 1 team.
A sale that would nevertheless make sense
For Ben Hunt, F1 columnist, Red Bull should have accepted this proposal. According to him, the team is currently going through a sufficiently delicate period to focus all its resources on its main team: “If I were in charge of Red Bull, I would have accepted this three billion dollar offer.”
The journalist recalls that the future of Max Verstappen remains uncertain and that Red Bull Racing is facing several departures of important members of its staff: “The main team is going through a difficult period. It is trying to convince a four-time world champion to stay while facing a significant exodus of its employees. This is a real problem.”
In his view, the interest in owning a second team is now less obvious. Historically, Racing Bulls (formerly Scuderia Toro Rosso then AlphaTauri) mainly served to train young drivers in the Red Bull program before their promotion to the first team.
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Unfair competition
But Hunt believes that this model is now less indispensable: “The Red Bull Junior Program no longer has the importance it once had. I no longer see a real need to own two teams in Formula 1, with two different identities. Even if Racing Bulls continues to promote Red Bull, the two structures now operate as two distinct companies. If it made financial sense, I would focus on just one team. ”
A situation considered unfair by some competitors. This case indeed reignites the debate on the presence of two teams belonging to the same group on the grid. Last spring, McLaren CEO Zak Brown once again pleaded in favor of total independence between all Formula 1 teams.
In an open letter published before the Monaco Grand Prix, he believed that the sport should evolve towards true independence between teams.
Increasing valuation
For him, this organization provides several strategic advantages to Red Bull: “I don’t think it’s really fair that two teams belong to the same group. You have privileged information about the market and the value of the different players. As we see in football, it is also possible to more easily move personnel or drivers between the two structures. This offers a competitive advantage which, in my opinion, should not exist.”
For now, Red Bull does not seem willing to part with Racing Bulls, despite an offer that would have been worth more than 3 billion dollars, proof of the now considerable value of Formula 1 teams.
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