ALPHATAURI: GO HARD OR GO HOME
The Alphatauri Formula 1 team has responded to speculation that it may be sold. These claims appeared in the German press ahead of the start of the new season, but have now been formally debunked – albeit in a way which revealed disquiet behind the scenes.
The original report in the respected Auto Motor und Sport asserted that Red Bull’s management was considering selling the team or moving it to England in order to improve synergies between Red Bull Racing and its sister team, given Alphatauri’s poor results. Red Bull’s new sporting chief Oliver Mintzlaff, according to Michael Schmidt, a journalist with over 40 years of F1 experience, is unhappy with the financial performance of the Faenza-based team, which has been “under scrutiny” since the death of Dietrich Mateschitz.
A few days later, Alphatauri released a statement from team principal Franz Tost denying the rumours.
“I had some very good meetings with Oliver Mintzlaff,” he was quoted as saying, “who confirmed that the shareholders will not sell Scuderia Alphatauri, and that Red Bull will continue supporting the team in the future. All these rumours have no foundation, and the team has to remain focused for the start of the season to perform better than last year.”
This statement was laden with vagueness, and it’s hard to deny that Mintzlaff has reason to be concerned about the future of Red Bull’s second team in F1. The suggestion that Alphatauri finds itself needing a bigger financial injection than the senior team doesn’t seem misleading at all – quite the opposite. Given Tost’s team finished ninth last season, its share of the FOM pie was many times smaller than Red Bull’s. Understandably, it’s also less attractive to sponsors.
Speaking to GP Racing’s sister publication Formel1.de, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko rebuffed talk that Alphatauri was up for sale – yet also admitted there was cause for discontent among the company’s bosses.
“True, Alphatauri’s ninth place in the constructors’ championship is not up to expectations,” he said in response to the Auto Motor und Sport claims. “That means there must be an improvement. It is also true that the financial commitment at Alphatauri is too high, i.e. the losses. This means that we also have to do something on the sponsor side, on the revenue side. In the course of this process, of course, we also discussed the possibilities. But it was always very clear that Alphatauri would remain in-house. That is an important part of our junior programme. The author of this article has again put apples, pears and what the hell else he knows together and used a lot of imagination to interpret something into it.”
He added, though: “Neither [Alphatauri’s] sporting performance nor financial performance meet Red Bull’s standards. So we have to do something to change that. We’re playing through various options, including [moving some staff to] England. Alphatauri already has over 100 employees in England. But the idea that the entire team will immediately move over there is also an overinterpretation.”
ONE POTENTIAL BUYER COULD BE ANDRETTI, WHO HAS BEEN POUNDING ON F1’S DOORS FOR OVER A YEAR NOW
Naturally one potential buyer could be Michael Andretti, who has been pounding on F1’s doors for over a year now. But he revealed to US media that he had talks with Red Bull bosses about Alphatauri, but confirmed they’re “not interested” in selling – for now, at least. Andretti’s main plan is still to set up an all-new F1 team in conjunction with Cadillac, but the current teams are reluctant to let a new player in. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner made it clear he would prefer to see Andretti buy a current F1 team.
“Red Bull Racing was Jaguar, which was Stewart,” he said. “You look at Mercedes, that goes all the way back through Honda to BAR to Tyrrell. Aston Martin go back to being a Jordan team. That has been the procedure for many years.
“Andretti is a great team, [Michael’s father] Mario Andretti is a name synonymous with Formula 1… Cadillac, GM, is one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world. So it would be great to see them in the sport, but it’s just got to be done properly.”
How to square this with the claim Alphatauri isn’t for sale? It’s understood the established teams are pushing for the price of entry into F1 to triple, from $200 million to $600 million. If this was approved, the value of F1’s current teams would increase. And then, perhaps, Red Bull’s bosses may change position from “not interested” to something less categorical?