SAUBER Likely to Lose Red Bull Sponsorship

By Jamie Makin
November 15 2004

Today's announcement of the sale of the Jaguar F1 team to Red Bull will likely mean that the 11-year partnership between SAUBER PETRONAS and Red Bull will come to an end.

Red Bull first sponsored SAUBER in 1995 and the ensuing partnership has been one of the longest standing ones in modern F1. Red Bull was even part-owner and title sponsor of the SAUBER team until the winter of 2000/2001. A dispute over drivers and direction of the team forced Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz to sell his shares to Credit Suisse. Mateschitz was determined to bring Red Bull backed driver Enrique Bernoldi to the SAUBER team while Peter Sauber insisted on the then-unknown rookie Kimi Raikkonen. Despite the rift, Red Bull continued to share their sponsorship between SAUBER and Arrows, where Bernoldi ended up. This year they continued their support of SAUBER but also funded Jaguar Racing to give Christian Klien a drive.

Although no official announcement has been made, it is logical to expect Red Bull to withdraw their sponsorship of SAUBER PETRONAS. They had renewed with SAUBER for just the 2004 season in preparing for such an eventuality. SAUBER is set to lose about USD 20 million which amounts to nearly 15% of the Swiss team's annual budget. While this is a large percentage, SAUBER has known this could happen for some time now and has likely been working securing a replacement. The C24 will be launched on 11 January so we should not have to wait long for an official annoucement.

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