Is plan to split Red Bull F1 from Red Bull GmbH parent behind Horner ruckus?

[John S]

Well Joe Saward, an accredited F1 journalist, seems to think so and has set out a very plausible scenario to add extra spice to the already complicated situation around Red Bull Racing/The Verstappens/Red Bull GmbH & the world media.

Below are paras pulled from his latest blog 'Green notebook from a dirty weekend' illustrating how he sees a different power struggle, to the normally referenced one, inside Red Bull.

Best explanation I've seen for all this in-fighting that appears to be taking place.
 

"The explanation that best fits the facts is that while there is a human drama on one level, the  “relationship” is being used as a weapon in a fight for control of the racing team.

There have been rumours for a while that Red Bull’s primary shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya, who controls 51 percent of the shares, is considering taking the Red Bull Technology Group Ltd out of Red Bull GmbH empire and setting it up as an independent car company, with Horner in charge and a shareholder in the business. This makes a great deal of sense because a drinks firm does not really have much use for an engine company and a supercar production division. If Yoovidhya has 51 percent of the shares, he can do as he pleases. Removing Horner would leave the technology division under the control of Red Bull GmbH. Whatever the case, Horner wants to be left alone to run the group he has created, without outside interference. When Dietrich Mateschitz was alive he had that freedom.

In the end, the dossier failed to remove Horner, just as the Red Bull investigation had failed to find any wrongdoing. Next came some very odd remarks from Jos Verstappen that Horner must go. It looked like another attempt to oust Horner, more desperate (and less subtle) than the previous ones. If Jos was willing by his words to risk his son’s relationship with the team, there must be good reason to do it, but I cannot see the logic in it. Jos Verstappen is many things, but he isn’t naive. Is it really in the best interest of the Verstappens to move Max out of the most successful team? And why would any other team take on a driver, no matter how good he is, who would bring this kind of baggage with him? It made no sense, unless it was something personal.

In the end this will play itself out. Horner has been damaged, but he is still there and the more attempts there are to remove him, the more it will look like a deliberate and targeted campaign to take him out. One can only speculate about who is involved and why, but as long as Yoovidhya stands by Horner, Christian will survive. I suspect that we will soon see other changes in the Red Bull empire as the pendulum swings the other way.  If Max does leave Red Bull, the team will take another hit, but if the goal is to take the Red Bull Technology division out of the Red Bull empire, it will be no more than collateral damage. If the top seat at Red Bull becomes available, there will be no shortage of candidates."

Selected paras Courtesy Joe Saward 'Green notebook from a dirty weekend', Joesaward.wordpress.com, Today.

[Jericoke]

Even though I follow the wheelings and dealings of businesses that control things I enjoy, I don't really understand the motives behind all these moves.  (Okay, yes, I understand the main motive is money/value, but I don't understand how these moves create that)

I have noticed companies go through fads, sometimes it makes sense to have lots of little companies focused on their own thing, sometimes it makes sense to have one big mega company that does everything.  So for whatever reason someone thinks it doesn't make sense for Red Bull the advertising company (they don't actually make the drinks, that's licensed out!) to be building race cars.  However, if the race car company is spun off, it will still be owned by the people who own Red Bull, i.e., the same people who owned a really big company will now own two companies.  The same thing happened with Ferrari, it used to be owned by Fiat, but now it's its own company (Dutch, for some reason (yes, I know that reason is money, again, but I don't know why a Dutch based Italian company makes more money than an Italian based Italian company)), but it's owned by the people who own Fiat.

Perhaps the ultimate goal is to make the race team semi public, with one person (presumably Yoovidhya) owning the majority share, and the rest publicly traded, or perhaps split up amongst important personnel, such as Newey, Horner, Marko and... a Verstappen or two?

The other possibility, while we're concerned with RBR, there's also VCARB.  Maybe this hypothetical situation allows Red Bull owners to own two teams that are more separated.  It might even facilitate selling off one of the teams, despite recent efforts to join the teams together.  I would assume that arcane EU, FIA and FOM rules might be at play as well as some creative accountants working for Yoovidhya.