Toro Rosso to be sold?

UPDATE #3 This rumor is downgraded to 'false' today. Boss Franz Tost has denied the latest reports about the likely sale of the Faenza based team Toro Rosso.

It has long been rumored that Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz wants to sell the energy drink company's second team.

The Swiss newspaper Blick on Monday reported that Toro Rosso is set to be bought by Arab investors.

"There is no truth in that story," Tost told the German website motorsport-magazin.com.

01/03/11 And on Monday, French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet wrote in his Auto Plus column also reported that Force India will announce officially on Tuesday that Paul di Resta will race alongside Adrian Sutil in 2011, with Nico Hulkenberg as third driver.

01/03/11 This rumor is upgraded to 'strong.' Blick's veteran correspondent Roger Benoit also reported that Toro Rosso is set to be bought by Arab investors.

01/03/11 There have been rumors in recent months that Scuderia Toro Rosso is again up for sale, with a price tag of around $30 million, although the buyer would also need to assume a certain amount of debt as well.

The team was up for sale a year or so ago but the economic climate was poor and at that point it made more sense for Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz to invest instead and build up the team so that it would fetch a better price when the world economy recovers. In the interim the team was used to train up young drivers. When Mateschitz bought the team at the end of 2005 there was a provision that teams would be allowed to use customer cars and it made sense to have two teams. This worked well until the 2008 Italian Grand Prix when Sebastian Vettel’s victory in a Toro Rosso alarmed the other teams and customer cars were banned, forcing Toro Rosso to become a constructor again in 2009, although the teams did allow Toro Rosso to use the Red Bull design that year and allowed the 2010 car to be based on the 2009.

Red Bull is obviously keen to concentrate all of its resources on the main team, rather than paying for a secondary team that is only really useful to run young drivers when it would be much cheaper for Red Bull to provide drivers with money if it wants them to be race-trained in F1. Joe Saward