Red Bull Racing Team buys Minardi

At the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium today, an agreement was reached whereby, from the 1st of November 2005, Austria's Red Bull GmbH will take over all the company shares of the Minardi Formula One team and will be responsible for running the team. Red Bull will run two Formula One teams from the start of the 2006 season.

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.
The reason's that Red Bull is optating for 2 teams next year are:
1. Red Bull has more talented drivers than it has available cockpits. 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.
2. 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.
3. This acquisition also means that Red Bull now has a second vote in any matters raised regarding the future of Formula 1.

51-year-old Stoddart agreed that he still loves the sport. "I am going to miss it so, so much," Paul lamented. "I don't think I'm finished in this Paddock," he insisted. Interestingly, Stoddart still owns much of Arrows' team assets from the 2002 collapse, and will retain his Ledbury (UK) factory despite the Minardi sale.

He says the 'saddest thing' about the Spa announcement is that the 20 year old Minardi name will probably disappear from the category next season.

Bahar, though, denied reports that Minardi is to be renamed 'Red Bull USA'. "We don't know what we will call it yet," he insisted. What is clear, is that guys like Tonio Liuzzi and American driver Scott Speed are in the pole position to race.