Just been reading a few reports that Red Bulls second team Toro Rosso has been sold or on the verge of being sold to Aabar the Abu Dhabi Investment company who already hold shares in Mercedes GP. These reports are coming after new sponsors appeared at the last race in the form of Falcon Private bank who are owned by Aabar. Apparently it will be baught by its Petroleom wing IPIC and the team will be under spanish Petrol company CEPSA's Red and White colours at the next race in Monza. This may be good news for Alguersuari as Cepsa like backing spanish drivers. Maybe good for Buemi too as Falcon are a swiss company.
Bad news for Ricciardo, especially now that Webber has signed a new contract, second year in a HRT? On the new paint job it seems that CEPSA's colours are predominantly red with a bit of white. please log in to view this image Surely this will be too similar to Ferrari's livery? please log in to view this image
Not another red and white car... I would take this with a pinch of salt, I thought Red Bull were incredibly committed to their young driver programme. Although they could sell off the rights to the team in exchange for driver control I suppose...
Marko has said that three years should be the maximum time it takes to evaluate one of their young drivers which effectively means Buemi's fate is decided at the end of the season.
I've become quite impressed by the way Toro Rosso have been shaping up this season, after they floundered for a while following the withdrawal of RBR tech support etc. If the owner and livery change, I hope that the team remains otherwise intact because they seem to be working very well together and it would be good to see them rise together as a result of the great teamwork they've shown recently. If they are sold, Dr. Marko's meddling will end too; no bad thing, in my opinion.
Hope this story is true, then we won't see any more inter-team 'team orders' like at Abu dhabi last year when Webber was let through and this year when Seb was let through and Hamilton blocked by Alguersuari (both times i think), and at Spa he could've over-taken Seb for position but backed off, tbh I think that all teams should stand on their own and have no deals with other teams (except maybe engines).
I'm surprised it hasn't been sold ages ago. Considering that just one driver from Toro Rosso has graduated to Red Bull- which was the initial purpose of the team- it seems rather pointless. Especially as the drivers haven't changed on a regular basis, like 2Many said this is Buemi's 3rd year, surely if he hasn't impressed enough to move up before now, then he probably isn't going to.
I'm happy with Toro Rosso being sold off, too long has that just been a feeder team and I really hope they get some real drivers in there. Hulk and Ricciardo please! Bout time we had another team knocking on the front runner doors with billions backing them.
More: http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/58170.html ----- The deal will see CEPSA branding on the Toro Rosso cars from this weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, as a press release from the team confirmed: "From now on, the CEPSA logo will be visible on Sébastien Buemi's and Jaime Alguersuari's race suits and on the nose, rear wing and rear wing endplates of the cars." -----
