David Coulthard claims he was ‘always against’ Red Bull having a second F1 team

Red Bull joined the F1 grid in 2005, headed by its team principal, Christian Horner. The outfit signed the former McLaren driver David Coulthard. On the other hand, the Austrian giant bought another team a year later, which was based in Faenza, and acted as a junior team. However, the Scottish driver was against the idea of having two teams owned by a single entity in the paddock as both of them were received as a failure in the F1 sphere.

Thr Milton-Keynes-based team has been a part of F1 for a long time. They were stakeholders in the Sauber team but pulled back after they promoted a young gun in the form of Kimi Raikkonen to the epitome of racing. This intrigued its owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, to buy an F1 team, and they bought the failing Jaguar outfit. The Austrian followed up his investment by buying another team in the next year, and the Austrian giant now owned two teams in F1.

However, the two teams ran different engines, and the junior team seemingly outdid its senior counterpart. Witnessing this stark contrast in reality, David Coulthard explained why he was against the idea of owning two separate F1 teams.

I’d always been personally against Toro Rosso. I remember saying to Dietrich [Mateschitz], it’s difficult enough to win with one team, why do you think we can win with two? It’s served the purpose but at the period when we were trying to win with one and get all of the attention, get all of the focus from Austria, we then have a sister team which is, at that point, quicker than us and I was like okay, I’m done.

David Coulthard said on the Beyond The Grid podcast

The 53-year-old recently revealed that he had been a strong opposer of Toro Rosso. He had advised Red Bull founder Mateschitz regarding how owning two teams was a waste of money as both teams were trundling the rear. This infuriated the former race winner and brought him to the edge of ending his tenure at the Milton Keynes-based squad.

How is Red Bull’s second outfit faring on the F1 grid?

The second outfit survived the economic recession in 2008 and has fought through multiple challenges. Despite this, the team has never been able to finish higher than sixth in the constructor’s standings, which made several experts claim that the team is a waste of money.

However, RB (formerly Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri) has been on an upward trajectory since its peak in 2021 and is hoping for a better season ahead.

I think Aston currently seem to be struggling as well which is a bit fortunate for us but I'm sure they will come back at some point when they have a big upgrade or whatever. We're still in a very tight fight and for sure we're not a top midfield car anymore. We just keep up one hundred percent.

Yuki Tsunoda said in an interview as quoted by GPBlog

VCARB driver Yuki Tsunoda, explained that the Faenza-based team is currently behind Aston Martin in terms of performance. The Japanese driver claimed that they are no longer a top-midfield team but the outfit still continues to progress and is giving their all.

Despite the 24-year-old’s optimism, the VCARB is often been lamented for serving one purpose, which is to earn sponsorship money. Thus, if Red Bull is serious regarding its sister team, then a huge increase in expenditure is required to help the team out-grow its senior team’s shadow.

In case you missed it:

• Does Sergio Perez have a backup plan if he is sacked from Red Bull?
• Helmut Marko claims critics thought Red Bull were ‘criminals’ for putting 17-year-old Max Verstappen’s Suzuka F1 outing

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