Christian Horner makes Red Bull and Infiniti deal public – Formula 1 update
The Red Bull’s team Boss, Christian Horner, has finalised a deal with Japanese auto brand, Infiniti, which will save the Australian based team seven million pounds this season. However he made it clear that the Renault engine name will remain the same for
2011 and 2012 season. The Infiniti label will be used on the front, nose and rear of the car. This deal will bring the first Japanese auto company to Formula one after Honda and Toyota brand withdrew from the sport at the end of 2008 and 2009 seasons respectively.
Infiniti is a luxury Brand of Japanese company Nissan. The Japanese auto maker and French company Renault have been partners since 1999. Renault holds 44 per cent shares in Nissan and Nissan holds 15 per cent shares in Renault.
Talking about the Renault engine, Christian Horner confirmed that the name will remain on the engine and on the visor of the drivers. Before this deal, Red Bull was the only top team who were paying for their engines whereas other top teams like Ferrari,
Mercedes and McLaren Mercedes get their engines from their own factories. One way or another Red Bull will now also get their engines for free.
Talking about the speculation that Infiniti label will appear on the engine, Infiniti’s Vice-president Andy Palmer said, “No, Infiniti is all about being genuine - so rebranding an engine would not have been genuine,” he said, “we've not gone and bought
a team.” Palmer explained that by joining hands with the world champion Formula one team, the Infiniti brand will only target markets in Europe and Asia, after being thrown out of competition in the U.S.A by some auto giants like Audi, BMW and Jaguar. Palmer
said that Infiniti will be working with Red Bull to give them support for their kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) and battery technology.
Christian Horner spoke further about the deal and said, “For us, a partnership like this is really the missing piece in our jigsaw that enables us to hopefully maintain our competitiveness that we've worked hard to achieve.” He explained that the only thing
that Red Bull lack against some of the biggest teams is technological support. With this new deal they may have that piece of the puzzle. Fans await to see how that will translate onto the track.
Tags: