Red Bull insists it has no plans to sell Toro Rosso.

The energy drinks company is pushing for the 2010 title with its main team Red Bull Racing, while its second team is a midfield runner at best.

“It is and remains our rookie team,” Red Bull mogul and Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz told Der Spiegel newspaper.

“We run our best young talents with this formula one team,” he added.

According to Mark Jenkins, a business strategy professor at Cranfield University in the UK, Red Bull should drop Faenza based Toro Rosso.

“It doesn’t make any sense with the current regulations for Red Bull to own two teams,” he is quoted by Bloomberg.

But the report also said Red Bull has confirmed it has no “concrete” plans to sell Toro Rosso.

The media research monitor Margaux Matrix found that, with its four Red Bull-branded F1 cars, Red Bull has got almost 267 minutes of TV airtime so far in 2010, compared with 52 minutes for Ferrari.

He may still have no manager, but Sebastian Vettel now has his own press spokeswoman.
Previously employed by the team Red Bull Racing, Britta Roeske will now handle only the 23-year-old German’s press affairs.

The move mirrors the approach of countryman Michael Schumacher, whose long-time press spokeswoman Sabine Kehm is now his general manager.

Jun.8 (GMM)  Franz Tost believes F1 teams should still be able to run a ‘customer car’ acquired from active competitors.

Since the Faenza based team was sold by Minardi in 2005, and until last year, Toro Rosso raced a chassis based on the car fielded by sister team Red Bull Racing.

But in 2010, due to a rule clarification, the team had to build up its Italian base and staff in order to design and construct its own car, the current Ferrari-powered STR5.

“Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that this rule is wrong,” team boss Tost is quoted in the latest edition of Auto Bild Motorsport.

“With an intensive collaboration between two teams, you could cut the budget in half,” adding that the lower half of the grid would also be more competitive.

However, Tost is also happy with the current situation, with Red Bull owning and operating two separate teams.

“It works perfectly: Red Bull going for the world championship, and Toro Rosso working with the next generation.

“Our current drivers Sebastien Buemi and Jamie Alguersuari are on the right track and have great futures,” added the Austrian.

Tost also thinks team owner Dietrich Mateschitz is happy.

“At the moment I don’t see any signs of a sale.  In the (finance company) Money Service Group from Liechtenstein we also have our first own sponsor,” he said.

Sauber has dismissed as “nonsense” reports that Pedro de la Rosa is on the verge of losing his race seat.

The veteran Spaniard has been faced with similar speculation for almost the entire season so far, despite the Swiss team denying it is reconsidering its 2010 lineup.

The latest reports say de la Rosa, 39, was almost replaced by Italian GP2 driver Luca Filippi ahead of the Turkish grand prix.

The Italian source said an agreement may simply have been delayed until the European grand prix at Valencia at the end of the month.

But the Swiss newspaper Blick, whose correspondent Roger Benoit is historically very close to 66-year-old Peter Sauber, quoted a team source as dismissing the latest rumours as “nonsense”.

The newspaper also reports that Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi is set to stay with Toro Rosso in 2011, and in the longer term is a candidate to move up to the energy drink company’s main team Red Bull Racing.

(GMM)