No Team Red Bull USA? Sponsorship for Herta?

[Lee Janotta]

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns07040.html

Apparently the driver search has been put on hold for at least a year, because Red Bull neglected to figure out just how to get these drivers over the hump into F1.

This _could_ lead to the drink company sponsoring Minardi for a year to bring Bryan Herta onboard, though. So at least something positive might be salvaged.

All signs point to the company pulling out of it's IRL sponsorship deal, which opens a great opportunity for the driver search and the company.

So how about it? A three-car Red Bull team in CART? Giebler, Edwards and Long? Sponsoring Allmendinger in Toyota Atlantic or in an oversees F3 series? All would be smart bets for them, IMO.

[Jay]

Allmendinger certainly doesn't need any help financing his Atlantic ride next year... winning the Barber Dodge championship pretty much guarantees it.

I'm not really sure what the point of sponsoring Bryan Herta to run around at the back of the pack would be. I thought they wanted an American that would actually have a shot of running in the top-10 or at least top-15.

Seriously, their best bet would be to start a Cart team and give some Americans a shot to show their stuff their. If there aren't any American drivers to cut it in Cart, what are the chances of having American drivers cut it in F1. (And I know there are a number of young American drivers ready for Cart)

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by Jay
Allmendinger certainly doesn't need any help financing his Atlantic ride next year... winning the Barber Dodge championship pretty much guarantees it.

You'd like to think so, but there still hasn't been any announcement of a deal for him in the series next year...

[Jay]

I wouldn't worry about that, there are a lot of undecided positions in Atlantics for next year (most of them actually). There are a number of drivers doing Atlantic tests right now to decide who will get what seats. I wouldn't be surprised if Allmendinger was one of them.