SAUBER's Red Bull Backing Hinges on Jag Withdrawal

Red Bull
By Jamie Makin
September 18 2004

Jaguar's announcement yesterday of their plans to withdraw from Formula One shocked the racing world yesterday. The most obvious side effect is that Jordan and Minardi are in jeopardy of having no engines next year but the impact of the decision will reach SAUBER PETRONAS as well.

In SAUBER's case though, it remains to be seen if Jaguar's departure will be a good or bad thing. The reason of course is that Red Bull currently sponsors Jaguar driver Christian Klien and has wavered on whether to continue supporting SAUBER. Many experts thought that Red Bull would leave SAUBER at the end of this season and put all of their efforts into Jaguar. This won't happen now, unless Red Bull decides to buy Jaguar. Red Bull, with their plans to start an "all American" team, is one of two prospective buyers for Jaguar. The other is Canadian steel company Dofasco. Should no buyer be found for Jaguar though, it is likely that Red Bull's sponsorship of SAUBER will continue as it has for the past ten seasons.

The other impact of Jaguar's withdrawal is that some teams will be forced to run a third car if Jaguar does not find a buyer. It is unclear how it will be decided who will run a third car. Odds are the better funded teams like Ferrari will be the ones to do so, with little chance that SAUBER would be forced to do so. SAUBER driver Felipe Massa, who is managed by Jean Todt's son Nicholas, would be a likely candidate to pilot a third Ferrari if the need arose. That would leave SAUBER looking for a partner for Jacques Villeneuve and perhaps would reopen the door to F3000 Champion Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Bear in mind that this is all just speculation at this point. The Jaguar situation will have to be carefully watched to see what develops from it and how it impacts team SAUBER.

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