You will read in various places today that Dietrich Mateschitz is telling the world that Scuderia Toro Rosso is NOT for sale. If you follow all these stories back to their source, they all come from the same journalist, who has been selling the same story into different newspapers and reporting it on different websites. This is all fine, except that Mateschitz told someone I know and trust that he has already sold a minority shareholding of the team to the Abu Dhabi investment company Aabar, and that this company has an option to take over the majority of the shares in the team. Now I don’t know what sort of a lead time there might be on such an option, nor how solid an option it may be, but I find myself not sure who to believe. Both sources are one person away from the man himself. My source is a business person, the other is a hack, looking to make a buck. I cannot say I know the answer to this mystery, but what I can see is a very good reason to get rid of the team; and no great reason to keep it. I can also envisage a number of explanations as to why the Austrian would want to have people think that team was still for sale when in fact a deal is in process: the obvious thing being that a better deal may come along.
The fact is that there are buyers out there for F1 teams, although they are keeping pretty low profiles at the moment. Aabar is a company which can obviously gain much value from F1 publicity, and it has the money to do such deals. There is also a long term ambition in the UAE to have a greater involvement in the sport, backing up the massive investments that have been made on Yas Island. I also hear that in Singapore there was a Chinese entrepreneur running around with $120 million in his pocket, looking to buy a team.
Scuderia Toro Rosso has no real value to Red Bull as a marketing tool. They don’t need it with Red Bull Racing doing as well as it is doing. And the original reason for buying the team long ago ceased to exist. Teams cannot share technology at the level that Mateschitz was told they could when he bought the team. Having stripped out all the manufacturing capability the team was then not much use to anyone and so in recent years Mateschitz has been quietly putting money back into the Italian operation, to create value and at some point he will sell the team. It is not much use to Red Bull for driver training either, as it is much more cost-effective for the drinks company to place a driver with a team like HRT, rather than having to pay for a full F1 operation.
I am not really bothered which story is right and which is wrong and I am really not into any competition between two journalists so at the end of the day it is not that important to anyone. Still, it would be nice to have the matter settled one way or the other,
joeblogsf1 
Maybe the head lines should have read, ” Torro Rosso is not for sale, (anymore, I’ve already sold it).
Sounds like the hack in question is trying to silt up the waters a bit. I wonder if he has a relationship with Aabar as they are the only people apparently who gain buy other potential buyers believing the team is not for sale.
Hi Joe,
as usual a well considered article.
Could the answer be that both be stories be right?
Dietrich Mateschitz does not NEED to sell and is aware that announcing to the world that he WANTS to sell is to invite a flood of tyre-kickers smelling desperation (Stefan GP anyone?). Not a strategy conducive to setting your own price and so he therefore tells the world that the team is “not for sale”, knowing that there are buyers out there.
Should, however, somebody offer to take a majority shareholding then he would most probably be happy to divest himself of some or all of the team – on his terms. As Dietrich Mateschitz currently enjoys the (expensive) privilege of having two voices in the future of the sport, there is almost certainly a sense in his maintaining a certain share in Torro Rosso so as to continue this arrangement.
Just a thought.
Keep up the good work.
Presumably $120 MM is the starting point, if you are serious about buying a team? Watching a heist movie last night with my mate (Heat, FWIW) we just couldn’t get into it. Problem, we couldn’t imagine taking that much risk for “only” (a cut of) $12MM. Inflation is a crazy thing.
But maybe also, STR has just become so much of a hassle to Mateschitz, he only wants rid of it, for wont of better expression “to the right hands”. If you’re loosing hand over fist on a deal (no actual idea, but sounds like it’s been an expensive distraction after it couldn’t fulfill original intent), you rather want the next owner to make good. It’s not charity, but it is a kind of face thing. More simply, you don’t want the new owners to trash your old home, even if you’re glad to move. And STR is always going to be next door, reminding him if it goes silly under new management. Another point came to mind just now. Whilst if i could afford, it wouldn’t be very hard to persuade myself i wanted to own a F1 team, well i am pretty biased. All deals need to be sold, even if the benefits are obvious. More desirable something is, harder sensible people think it over. My earliest lesson in this was being instructed to sell “filler” ads, which could as well be given away – but you can’t just say “yours mate for a pint, s’long as your copy gets biked today”, nope, it’s a full sale and a bit harder than a normal one, because you have to manage a deliberate and blatant weakness you want to be taken advantage of, just this once. *
Well, something is afoot. I hope they find an interesting owner, and as commented here the other day, someone who really wants to be running a team, or at least gets clear joy out of being involved. For all Mateschitz’s “shyness”, least from the cameras, he obviously really cares for his racing, few pictures i’ve seen of him he was beaming with pride. So you might expect him to be protective.
Note to self: if ever penning a heist movie script, make it jewels or gold . .
*you get some very interesting maths, if you look into this dynamic.
“Sounds like the hack in question is trying to silt up the waters a bit.”
HAHAHA!!
Don’t know if you were being ironic. The hack in question is Christian Sylt who writes on PitPass.com and various newspaper business sections. I think the original article was in the Financial Times, which makes it look authentic, even if it is intended to mislead.
Financial Times (Germany)
I suppose it is better than buying HRT but not a lot, other than a Ferrari engine contract. I would personally rather pay a bit more for Force India, which given VJ’s airline cash flow issues at the moment, I would not be surprised to see on the market sooner rather than later.
Wilson
Personally I think that Toro Rosso is something of a waste of an F1 entry at the minute. An average, anonymous team with two average, anonymous drivers, it’s contributing nothing to F1, save the magical seventh-from-bottom qualifier that allows faster teams to save their option tyres.
TR does not even operate with the ambition, drive and personality of a Marussia Virgin or Team Lotus. They don’t have the thrown-in-at-the-deep-end desperation of HRT, or the drivers with everything to prove as installed at Sauber.
No, they’re just a couple of cars that look a bit like Red Bull Renaults, with a couple of drivers you’d struggle to recognised if they introduced themselves to you by name.
Just what Giancarlo Minardi and Paul Stoddart think of the team they ran with such passion I daren’t imagine.
Best Toro Rosso left and someone else had a go.
IainT,
the (English edition) FT is having some “issues” right now. I got tripped up by their piece on Siemens taking it’s French bank deposits to the ECB. Though the gist of it was true, the spin on the tale ended up with lots of “restatements” from both sides, and so i had to go digging before i sussed it. (which vacillation makes an adman suspicious)There’s often more credibility in their free Alphaville blog, where their writers get to play full on cynics. But even they sometimes seem to follow news broken by a crowd who go under the name of a character famously played by Brad Pitt in a cult movie . . so i often find myself scratching my head. (this other lot’s batting average is really quite good, just they bang on so hard)
Thing is, journo in question, seems to be syndicated everywhere. Just one man? Better salesman than journo, which case. Really, i am just not sure it is one person, because of the blunderbus of highly directed groupthink peppering the pages of who should maybe bother to check more carefully. I don’t want in on a slanging match, i’ve no beef at all, normal day in the office sussing who talks with which voice, just noting i have been piqued by what i can only say i find rather funny.
“I also hear that in Singapore there was a Chinese entrepreneur running around with $120 million in his pocket, looking to buy a team.”
I think Chinese investment in the sport is inevitable. Just as investment from the Emirates is. I would not be surprised if one buys Toro Rosso and the other Hispania. Or maybe Sauber when Peter Sauber decides to re-retire, though I think that will be a while away.
TimW said it. If he’s already sold a stake and there’s an option to buy then saying “The team is not for sale” is not a lie!
“joesaward: Financial Times (Germany)”
Doesn’t surprise me it wasn’t even the UK version…..he crops up in the Express (Daily and Sunday) and the Daily/Sunday Telegraph as well. Most of his articles have a headline and very little substance, unlike yours Joe.
Movie idea. I like that other John.
Ex F1 team owner driven insane by his own shirts and co host decides to hijack his way back into F1.
The rest writes itself. 50/50?
Joe
If Red Bull can make a profit, could you not run Torro Rosso as a second tier team but still at a profit? Yes there is less prize money, but there must be less investment from a follower rather than a leading edge team. If the intent is for F1 teams to be profit centres in the next few years, surely Mateschitz would prefer to make a few quid out of it, and not have the expense and hassle of having to pay HRT to field his drivers. Presumably Torro Rosos also help out with Red Bull in team voting as Sauber used to with Ferrari?
Well whatever happens, I hope that Ferrari exercises their option and shunts their wee whingeing driver over there when they get fed up with him continually running into Lewis.
Oh, well if that’s the hack in question, I wouldn’t trust a thing. He only parrots whatever Bernie wants him to anyway
Giles Guthrie says STR “is something of a waste of an F1 entry at the minute. An average, anonymous team with two average, anonymous drivers, it’s contributing nothing to F1, save the magical seventh-from-bottom qualifier that allows faster teams to save their option tyres.”
One of those “average, anonymous drivers” is all of 21½ years old, and both he and Mr. Buemi have shown considerable ability to improve upon their qualifying position (given their equipment) in the race. As qualifying backmarkers STR is acutely susceptible to the sort of amateurism displayed by drivers like Senna (Jaime qualified 6th, BTW) and Perez in Belgium this season.
I knew exactly what I was saying. Pitpass has many variations of its name as nicknames and none of them complimentary. Personally I have boycotted the site since its obscene attack on Sir Jackie Stewart
Maybe Dieter has an offer for Toro Rosso lying on his desk? And by saying the team is not for sale he tries to push the price up.
“And by saying the team is not for sale he tries to push the price up.”
Or he drives potential buyers away.
“Or he drives potential buyers away.”
That is the gamble you take. You don’t get a company as big as Red Bull by playing safe. My idea is that there is serious interest in buying TR. Time will tell.
“I also hear that in Singapore there was a Chinese entrepreneur running around with $120 million in his pocket, looking to buy a team.”
Here’s a thought – Teddy Yip Junior? Why else would Mark Gallagher suddenly leave his role at Cosworth to go back to the team (now in GP3) which he started, Status Grand Prix? Presumably it was named ‘Grand Prix’ for a reason . . .
Can there be any successful F1 team in Italy other then Ferrari? Biggest detriment to any purchaser I can think of, and relocation probably is not an option.
Joe, are we all missing the point here and the reason that Mateschiz is saying that Toro Rosso is not for sale is because it has already been sold? But why does he not jut reveal that it has been sold? All these reports seem to come from quotes from Mateschiz himself so why would he give an incorrect statement to the Financial Times?