Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsSauber

Red Bull threats strengthen smaller F1 teams’ stance

Red Bull’s quit threats are strengthening the stance of the independent teams who believe they should be supported, according to Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn.

Sauber and Force India recently filed a complaint with the EU regarding F1’s governance and revenue structure, with the bigger teams receiving premium payments for committing to the sport until 2020. However, Red Bull’s future is in doubt as it is struggling to agree a deal with a power unit supplier for next season having been unhappy with a lack of competitiveness from Renault.

When asked by F1i if Red Bull’s quit threats highlight the importance of independent teams to the sport, Kaltenborn replied: ”Unfortunately it does.

“Red Bull is of course not a car manufacturer but you can compare it in terms of its financial strength, importance, and what they’ve done in the sport - it just shows that these kind of companies always come and go. This is not something for them to always be in, and when it doesn’t suit them anymore or it has suited them enough, they leave.

“That’s such an important difference to teams like ours.”

And Kaltenborn says the likes of Sauber and Force India have proven themselves to be solely focused on F1 though previous tough times for the sport.

“We have been saying for a long time that it’s teams like a Force India or Sauber whose core competence is this and core activity is this. We do nothing else, this is not a marketing platform for us, it is a marketing platform for our partners. Actually it is these kind of teams that are always around.

“If you look back to 2008/9 when the manufacturers left; Honda, Toyota, BMW, Renault in that capacity of having a team, who stayed on? It was teams like ours. Who came to save the team? It is teams like ours. I fully agree with the statement that it is teams like ours that have to be supported.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.