Will Red Bull boss retirement end F1 programs?
It was reported last week that Dietrich Mateschitz, the energy drink company's owner and billionaire mogul, might consider retiring at the age of sixty five.
He is currently sixty two.
Horner agreed that Austrian Mateschitz is 'heavily involved' in Red Bull's business activities, but rejected the three year timeline even though the Milton Keynes based team struggled with the RB2 car in 2006.
"His commitment to formula one is for at least the next five years, which is the length of the new Concorde or FOM agreement, so I think in the short term, it certainly won't have any affect on our plans or aspirations," Horner said.
10/20/06 In an interview with Format magazine, Red Bull boss, Dietrich Mateschitz said that he only intends running the company for another three years, until he reaches the age of 65, making a lot of people wonder what will happen to the two Red Bull F1 teams after that.
According to the Austrian, Red Bull's marketing expenditure in 2005 was "scarcely" €700m ($883m), and will increase to €900m ($1.136B) this year. This compares to Red Bull's net earnings in 2005, which were €412.8m ($521m).