Red Bull ‘committed’ to Formula One long-term

Christian Horner

Christian Horner says Red Bull is "committed" to a long-term future in Formula One, even if it fails to repeat its current success in the future.

Red Bull bought out the Jaguar team in 2005, and having shown an immediate improvement on the previous outfit it continued to progress to become a race-winning team in 2009. Having now secured back-to-back constructors' championships and 26 victories Horner was asked if he thought the drinks company could withdraw its backing after having gained such success.

"I don't think so," Horner is quoted by Autosport. "I think Red Bull is committed to F1. Dietrich [Mateschitz] is passionate about the sport and, as a sponsor and a shareholder in another team, Sauber, Red Bull has been around F1 for over 15 years now.

"Our target is to build on the success into the future, and where you look in the standings, where Red Bull already sits, it is already quite an achievement. We are ahead of some illustrious names in a very short space of time."

The success Horner mentions sees Red Bull sitting eighth in the all-time list of Formula One race wins by a constructor, one behind Benetton and ahead of Tyrrell, Matra, BRM and Alfa Romeo. Horner said that whether it is winning races or not, Red Bull receives a huge amount of brand awareness via the team.

"The global audience that F1 represents is a huge platform for Red Bull to market its product. It is impossible to correlate can sales with F1 visibility but, when you look at the amount of coverage that Red Bull and Red Bull partners have enjoyed, not just this year but the last three to four years, it is absolutely incredible. For sure, from a brand awareness point of view, F1 is probably only second only to the Olympic Games, which is every four years." ESPN.com