Quote:
Originally posted by Wrex
Why are they [Red Bull] sooooooo keen to get into F1? Why not start a new team or take over from Prost or Arrows?
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I think Red Bull's strategy is two fold. (A) They want to have their own F1 team, not just be a major sponsor. They may want to have complete control of their F1 marketing effort and not be subject to the whims of a privateer like Prost or Walkinshaw, or perhaps there is some other reason.
(B) Their marketing effort here in the U.S. seems to be going nowhere - you rarely see the drink offered for sale, and there is very little advertising - and I believe they think that an all U.S. team would jump start this as well as increasing the U.S. interest in F1, which of course would also increase the value of their investment.
They may well have been interested in Arrows or Prost, but the individuals concerned do not seem to have been receptive to giving up their total control of the teams. Another reason may be that both teams had run up such staggering debts that it just wasn't economical to attempt to take control. I have not been seeing stories that Eddie Jordon has run up huge debts, just that he is having alot of difficulty putting together finances for the 2003 season.
If they could pay a reasonable price or even a bit more than reasonable to buy out Eddie Jordan now and provide the needed funds for the season, this would probably cost alot less than starting their own team which could not possibly be ready before next (2004) year.
The big question is, will EJ sell?
(Alot of stupid typos to edit this morning.)