Proposal of R$15.3 billion by Racing Bulls is denied by Red Bull in Formula 1 By Thiago Lemos
2 min read
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An offer of approximately 15.3 billion reais (equivalent to three billion dollars) by the Racing Bulls team, which acts as Red Bull’s Formula 1 arm, was rejected. The proposal was headed by a former consultant to Bernie Ecclestone, former director of the category.
Investors Dean Attew, who previously served as an advisor to Ecclestone and F1 leader until 2016, and Andrew Herriot presented the takeover offer to Red Bull. The financing of the initiative was supported by funds from Abu Dhabi, but the Austrian group chose not to accept the sale of the team.
Attew is known as the co-founder of Titon International, a company specializing in private security. In 2016, he was one of the names considered to lead one of the attempts to purchase Formula 1 from the CVC Capital group, then the majority holder. At the time, the category was acquired by Liberty Media for around 26.1 billion reais (eight billion dollars at the time), which maintains control to this day, which demonstrates Attew’s history of interest behind the scenes in F1.
This refusal is not an isolated event for Red Bull; the team had already rejected proposals worth just over 10.1 billion reais (around two billion dollars) for Racing Bulls the previous year.
The management of two teams on the same Formula 1 grid by Red Bull, the parent company and Racing Bulls, has generated debate and criticism in recent months. Racing Bulls, formerly known as Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri, serves as a kind of ‘B team’, functioning as a testing ground for new talent and components in the main category.
This configuration provides certain competitive advantages, including easy movement of personnel and even joint strategies between teams. A notorious case was seen at the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix, when Daniel Ricciardo, driving for Racing Bulls, achieved the fastest lap, depriving Lando Norris of the extra point and helping Max Verstappen in the title fight.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown expressed concerns in a letter sent to the FIA president. He argued that the situation presents a “real risk that the sport will take a step back in terms of integrity and fairness”.
The FIA president himself, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, declared in an interview that, “in his personal view, having two teams was not the right way”, despite recognizing that the matter involves “a complicated area”.
