Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has rubbished suggestions that the signing of Mark Webber for 2007 is contrary to Red Bull’s youthful image in the formula one paddock.
Alongside Scottish veteran David Coulthard, who is nearly 36, the signing of 30-year-old Australian Webber makes Red Bull’s lineup clearly the oldest on the grid.
But billionaire Mateschitz, 62, argued that – in a grand prix cockpit – youth is not everything.
“If you want to develop a car you have to have experience,” he told the newspaper Kleinen Zeitung.
“You also have to have two drivers that score points, so from my perspective the choice of Webber and Coulthard is correct.”
2007 is Red Bull’s third season as a formula one constructor and Mateschitz rejected any suggestion that some recent staff departures and the less than competitive RB3 car indicate that not all is well at Milton Keynes.
“From our time as a sponsor (to Sauber) we already knew that succeeding as a purely private team would not be simple,” said the Austrian.
He said F1 is “absolutely” still valuable for his energy drinks company.
