The Scuderia Toro Rosso sold… by 2010!

For several months now, rumors had been circulating about a possible sale of Scuderia Toro Rosso. Mateschitz, the main shareholder alongside Gerhard Berger, confirmed that the team had been put up for sale a few days ago in the hope of offloading the team before the 2010 season.

The new Concorde agreements, signed in Paris last year and applicable in 2010, state that a team cannot use a chassis manufactured by another entity. This is indeed the case for Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s junior team that uses chassis from its parent company.

It was the Swiss magazine Motorsport Aktuell that revealed this information to the public today.

« It’s not a big secret that we are revealing about Toro Rosso today », admitted Mateschitz in this interview.

« For the 2010 season, the regulations will change and in the meantime, we do not intend to change our way of operating with our parent company, Red Bull. Given our good performances, we prefer to sell the team, as early as 2008, to ensure that it is so in 2010. »

Rumors began to develop last weekend in Australia for the first GP of the year. Roustam Tariko, a wealthy Russian businessman, was Gerhard Berger’s guest of honor. The former had attempted a few years ago to buy Eddie Irvine’s F1 team.

The other name being mentioned is Tony Teixeira. He is the president of the A1GP championship, who could take the opportunity to compete with F1 by launching a major advertising campaign for the A1 – the world cup of automobile nations.

Mateschitz emphasized that he wouldn’t sell the team to just anyone. He will part with it after 3 years of competition, following the purchase from Paul Stoddart of Minardi F1. The latter is also in the running to buy back his former team. He is indeed no longer present in Champcar and expressed a few weeks ago his desire to buy Super-Aguri.