Red Bull Racing driver Neel Jani drives the Formula One show car on the world’s highest motorable road at 18,380 feet on the Khardung-La pass in Leh region in India on October 10, 2011.
The latest briefings from the world dominating fizzy drinks empire is that Dietricht Mateschitz is considering forming a ‘Red Bull Formula Series.’
This would see Adrian Newey designed cars on offer to prospective teams, with a single specification V8/10 engine of yesteryear. Drivers would be offered up to $25million to participate and would be contracted by the series promoter.
Under the contracts with FOM, current F1 circuits are barred from hosting single seater racing that would compete with Formula One (vague but enforceable), yet there are a host of historic tracks which Red Bull could reinvigorate and inspire F1 fans to dream of yesteryear.
So in Europe, the likes of Donnington Park, Brands Hatch, Magny Cours, Paul Ricard, San Marino, Mugello, Jerez and both current German F1 circuits – Hockenheim and Nurburgring – could well express an interest.
In the USA there are a plethora of circuits who can facilitate such an event – with the added benefit that the European audience can watch prime time Sunday evening, instead of stupid O’ Clock in the morning – as is the case with Ecclestone’s far east expansion of Formula One.
Of course this proposition is clearly a threat designed to motivate Bernie Ecclestone into solving RBR and Toro Rosso’s current engine predicament for 2016.
But the idea sounds a lot like A1 GP on financial drugs – and look where that ended up.
As Silverstone and Monza are in deep financial trouble, they could get those tracks on board too. Altough Italy will be difficult when you don’t have Ferrari, but Red Bull could solve that for a bit by running Ferrari engines. When the price to visit the tracks is right it could be an entertaining series to visit. They will never push F1 out of the market though (altough F1 could push itself out of the European market).
Fuji, Zolder, Zandvoort, magny cours, imola, hockenheim, kyalami, indianapolis.. that list looks great
Road America, Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Road Atlanta, Mid Ohio, Barber Motorsport Park…………………
It sounds great! The question is, would you go to that race? I would, and if the price would be reasonable many people would
Plus, without Bernie’s greedy fingers in the pie, the TV rights would be low, so any channel could afford to show it.
Hang on a minute – I thought this was nothing more than just an idea that was floated by a poster on JA on F1 – As James Allen said:
“Nuclear Option – Red Bull quits F1 and starts its own series
One poster left a comment last night with a scenario which is worth reflecting on; “if RBR starts the RBR international Formula series, which will have Newey F1 cars and V8/10 engines, all drivers have the same equipment, let’s say they offer c$25m to attract all the top drivers.”
It’s more than just a comment on a blog
James Allen’s response to the comment on his blog was: “It’s highly improbable, but intriguing to consider.”
It’s highly improbable Red Bull will leave Formula One – but they are spreading all kinds of rumours abroad – to shake the tree.
I was gonna say the same thing!!! Is that Red Bull PR people commenting on web or something???? After that I saw some other topics and comments on other sites as well. About this same thing. It’s very suspicious for some reason….
This story 24 hours after we reported it is now being run by the mainstream F1 media. Of course its another Red Bull threat/ultimatum.
This idea has some merit actually…it could be the antithesis of a lot that’s wrong with F1 at the moment, although it would be a shame to lose the competitive engineering side. I know its probably just a stick to beat Bernie with, but maybe there’s more to it?
Bernie used a similar tactic against Balestre in the FISA-FOCA wars – and look where that led us!!
Formula Bull
RB doing a Bernie! Talk about stirring up the pot. After all, we really didn’t have much of a driver silly season.
Well, Red Bull does have experience in running their own competitions, even on a season-based model. Take their Cliff Diving World Series for example or take a look at the Air Race World Championship, which is in its 10th season right now. I really believe that Red Bull, in synergy with their Formula 1 team and other motorsport-related people, could create their own single seat racing series as the article speculates. How well the idea of separate teams would work is another question, but the fizzy drink company does have plenty of know-how and experience already.
Red Bull has already missed the train. Formula E has already picked up all the drivers that were regurgitated by F1.
I respectfully do not agree.
at the proposed (up to) $25M salary, I would guess Lewis, Seb and Fred would at least have to take a send look while all the rest take a good hard look…
I am not a Red Bull Brand fan at all, but I see them and only them with the brain trust, experience and resources (human/engineering/manufacturing/event promo/PR) capable of turning this concept into the pinnacle of racing in 30 months max… and goodbye to F1 if it has not already imploded.
not hard to see Bernie’s GP 2 and 3 along with IndyCar and the road to Indy all collapsing as separate entities and being assimilated into this new Red Bull juggernaut.
while not without its downsides and potential future dangers to motorsport in general, I see this threat as pretty much a cakewalk to successfully pull off in little time…
And where is this money coming from? A simple calculation: 10 drivers @ $15,000,000/each = $150,000,000/year; 6 drivers @ $25,000,000/each = $150,000,000. This will never happen.
I think the Red Bull propaganda machine that started this rumour were suggesting a few top drivers would earn this kind of cash, merely to get them to sign up.
Oh and BTW, its $500m for Red Bull to pull out of F1.
@Gomer – you’re a genius. Not only were you able to assume the posters suggestion was true, but then you actually calculated what suggested drivers salaries would be for 1 year. Amazing! The brilliance of your post though is how you then used the sum of your numbers to completely shred the theory of the original posters driver costs apart. Second time, amazing!
My question to you is, why you completely ignored the fact that if 20 odd some drivers were willing to commit to red bull formula that these drivers salaries would be offset by sponsorship and actual {^#*}+@$$ income. Pardon my French. If Alonso, vettel, Hamilton, Ricardo, etc, all saw enough value in the product red bull was asking them to help sell don’t you think there might be a reason? It wouldn’t be a gamble, it’s a sure goal if you have 300 million worth of drivers interested. Also, what information has lead you to think 300 million is a lot of money for red bull? Last I checked they spend that on their 1st of TWO f1 teams.
hey judge. i thought this site was NOT moderated???
More power to Red Bull if it ultimately gets rid of Bernie and Co. somehow.