Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has revealed that he may sell the naming rights to the Red Bull Formula One team in the near future.
“As soon as Red Bull Racing is recognised as an established team, a title sponsor could be possible,” Mateschitz told the Sunday Express.
He is believed to favour a luxury goods brand which could bring in £30 million (€35m, $44m). This would offset some of the teams estimated £110 million annual budget.
The brand name could appear ahead of Red Bull, as is the case with most teams: Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes, AT&T Williams etc, or Red Bull could opt to drop the name completely, as is the case with Virgin Racing.
Whilst many now see Red Bull as an established team, having taken second in 2009 as well as currently leading both championships in 2010, team principal Christian Horner believes Red Bull’s resources are yet to match those of its competitors.
He told reporters in Monaco last week that the Milton Keynes based team doesn’t “quite have the resource of the more established teams”, whilst McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh isn’t so sure.
“I think that whatever the level of funding, and I don’t know the funding, in terms of resources, the larger teams are pretty similar,” ESPN quote him as saying. “Red Bull is a well-funded, well-structured, well-led organisation.”
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