Sauber and Red Bull reach Splitsville

f1manoz · 25 Oct 2001, 13:38 (Ref:165286)

From Yahoo-Sports:

Sauber-Petronas have today announced that they will start into the 2002 season without the Red Bull trade mark.

The team have released the following statement:

"After a long lasting partnership and the most successful season of the team so far, the co-operation with Red Bull will end as of 31 December 2001."

"The seven years together with Red Bull had an essential impact on the team's image. Peter Sauber and his crew thank Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull for the confidence in the partnership and wish Red Bull all the best for their future."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Considering Red Bull's announcement of a further injection of funds into Arrows earlier this months, perhaps the end of the relationship between them and Sauber is not entirely surprising, as it's been doing the rumours circle for a few months now.

Could this impact on Saubers competitiveness for next year? And was it the right decision by either company to part after such a successful season?

paulzinho · 25 Oct 2001, 13:42 (Ref:165288)

Have Sauber got anyone new lined up?

MichaelC · 25 Oct 2001, 19:04 (Ref:165471)

I think they saw this coming a while back, which is why they releaved Credit Suisse of a fairly large sum of money at the start of the 2001 season. They'll be fine without Red Bull.

EERO · 25 Oct 2001, 19:29 (Ref:165484)

That's right, Michael, and I understand that Credit Suisse is going to up the ante in 2002. P Sauber seems to want to go after more Swiss Sponsors, making Sauber a National Team. Nestle and Novartis could be potential sources of funding.

However given the recent Swissair fiasco and the trouble that Nestle is in.... Maybe that McLaren rumour isn't so wide of the mark?

steve nielsen · 25 Oct 2001, 19:43 (Ref:165492)

What does Novartis do??

**Bononi** · 25 Oct 2001, 20:25 (Ref:165511)

Yeah, Nestle... it could be a good move to improve their image.

facco · 25 Oct 2001, 22:27 (Ref:165559)

Quote:

Originally posted by steve nielsen
What does Novartis do??

AFAIK, pharmaceuticals.

Nicholas · 26 Oct 2001, 07:02 (Ref:165664)

I wonder how Sauber will do next year?

paulzinho · 26 Oct 2001, 12:47 (Ref:165804)

I still believe they'll do well, they have a rookie who looks to be the real deal, more so than Raikkonen and Heidfeld who in himself is proving to be a world class driver.

I think that they should still mix it with the Honda boys and have the upper hand of the Jags. At least I hope they will.

facco · 26 Oct 2001, 19:18 (Ref:165976)

Paninfo signed with Sauber. BTW, What does paninfo trade?

steve nielsen · 26 Oct 2001, 19:35 (Ref:165984)

from www.paninfo.com

PRESS RELEASE

Brüttisellen / Hinwil, 26. Oktober 2001: Two Swiss based High-tech companies will enter a partnership from January 2002. PANINFO AG, a leading IBM Business-Partner provides Formula 1 team SAUBER with IT-hardware-infrastructure.

PANINFO AG, based in Brüttisellen/Zürich, a successful market player since 1978, is working exclusively with IBM products. Kurt D. Weber, owner and CEO: "We have a deep and proven experience in planning, implementing and servicing complex IT solutions. Regarding our products and our know-how, we are sure that we will contribute to the future success of the team".

Peter Sauber is happy about this new partnership: "Competition in Formula 1 gets harder and the importance of IT raises. The development and operation of our race cars need high-performance computers which are absolutely reliable. I am sure that with Kurt D. Weber and his company PANINFO AG we have found a partner which will meet our high expectations.

Further Informations:
Markus A. Angst, RED BULL?? SAUBER AG, Tel. +41 1 937 90 00
Kurt D. Weber, PANINFO AG, Tel. +41 1 805 14 14

cybersdorf · 26 Oct 2001, 19:40 (Ref:165987)

Quote:

Originally posted by paulzinho
Have Sauber got anyone new lined up?

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.

**Bononi** · 26 Oct 2001, 20:14 (Ref:166011)

Thanks for the info cybersdorf.

Paulzinho was asking about who will be sponsoring Sauber next season...

cybersdorf · 26 Oct 2001, 20:18 (Ref:166012)

Quote:

Originally posted by Bononi
Thanks for the info cybersdorf.

Paulzinho was asking about who will be sponsoring Sauber next season...

Ah.

Okay.

Back to square one...

paulzinho · 28 Oct 2001, 14:21 (Ref:166589)

Victor Broccoli · 29 Oct 2001, 01:29 (Ref:166795)

Y'kno...I'm kinda miffed about this:

I went out before the season and bought myself a Kimi Raikkonen RBSP cap. Now Kimi and Red Bull are gone.

It's almost like the time I bought the Zigmound Palffy Isles-Fishstick jersey...

Don K · 29 Oct 2001, 05:58 (Ref:166824)

Quote:

Originally posted by Victor Broccoli
I went out before the season and bought myself a Kimi Raikkonen RBSP cap.

But at that time Red Bull probably already had put out a statement saying that they had the intention to stop sponsoring Sauber ...

Tristan · 29 Oct 2001, 19:03 (Ref:167051)

Yeah, I heard this too. From what I gathered, Red Bull will sponsor Arrows as a second sponser, perhaps the nose or the engine cover, with Orange as prinipal with Red Bull sponsoring Sauber more or less to the degree that they sponsored Arrows last year and keeping the majority of the shares intact.

**Bononi** · 29 Oct 2001, 20:35 (Ref:167119)

But Red Bull are not centering its efforts on Arrow ??? :confused:

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