Quote:
Originally posted by paulzinho
Have Sauber got anyone new lined up?
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They will be sponsoring Arrows.
From what I know, the The Red Bull-Sauber-Arrows scenario reads like this:
Dietrich "Mr. Red Bull" Mateschitz and Peter "Mr. Sauber" Sauber had a difference of opinion over the signing of Kimi Raikonen. Red Bull have taken an active interest in the career of their former F3000 driver Enrique Bernoldi. They have a long term contract with him. Sauber chose to hire young master Kimi, not his main sponsor's and (majority?) shareholder's protegé. Bottom line is, Mateschitz is unhappy with the way Sauber runs the team; he doesn't think Sauber has what it takes to build his team into an outright winner. Apparently Tom Walkinshaw has.
Besides, Red Bull want to establish themselves on the American market. They probably chose to back Eddie in the near future because the IRL is more visible than F1, is gaining on CART, and will take them straight to Indy. And I have a hunch Coke and Pepsi wouldn't allow a "Red Bull" Winston Cup car
At the same time, they want to rekindle the American race fans' interest in F1 because because they have invested some money in F1, and made some money from it. They want to do so by taking a current F1 operation and gradually evolving it into an "All American F1 Team" (possibly with up & coming American drivers); they probably feel that a team like Arrows is a good starting point for such an "American" team.
"Red Bull will be gone by 2003." - When Red Bull was launched in 1987, people said "it will be gone by 1990".
They have a market share of 70 to 90% whereever they have established themselves (i.e., pretty much everywhere except North America, China, and India ). They have an annual budget of around USD 250,000,000,-- for marketing and sponsoring.