Subject to approval, Red Bull will again take over the 50% share of Toro Rosso which has been owned by Berger Motorsport since 2006.

The two friends, Dietrich Mateschitz and Gerhard Berger, have led their joint motorsports project, formerly Minardi, to its greatest success to date: the team’s first win in its 25 year history at the Italian Grand Prix this season.

Before Red Bull took over Minardi, the team regularly was the wrong end of the grid and the team had to be radically overhauled to fulfill the expectations of the new owners. As part of this reconstruction, the assignment of 50% of the shares to Berger Motorsport was necessary. With this transfer, Gerhard Berger brought all his F1 knowledge and connections into the partnership in order to help further develop Toro Rosso.

“I am very happy that I can support Didi – who has committed himself to F1 with so much dedication – with the reorganisation of the team and in this process to make use of my knowledge so effectively,” said Berger.

Didi Mateschitz agrees: “I’m very grateful to Gerhard for his enormous input. Together we have made Toro Rosso a team which from 2008 onwards will regularly qualify for the top ten and collect Championship points.”

From the beginning, Red Bull was responsible for the financial and technical development of the Team, while Gerhard Berger focused on steering the racing side.

“A 100% financing of a joint project by one partner can only make sense, to my mind, at an initial stage,” Gerhard Berger said. “This stage is over now. That’s why Red Bull will take over the shares again.”

“Red Bull will now run Toro Rosso alone on this basis as well as remaining a partner of Berger Logistik,” added Didi Mateschitz.