JANUARY 6, 2005

Red Bull into GP2 with US rising star

Red Bull is to sponsor American Scott Speed in the GP2 series. Speed won the German and European Formula Renault titles in 2004 and was expected to move up to the new series but Red Bull's decision to sign with the iSport Internatonal team is a bit of a surprise as last year the Red Bull money in Formula 3000 was used to support the championship-winning Arden International team. Arden has yet to announce its drivers but rumours are circulating that one of the two will be Finland's Heikki Kovalainen, who is a Renault Development Driver and sometime Renault F1 tester.

The choice of iSport is sensible given that the team has much in common with the organization which was formerly the secondary Super Nova team. It was known by various names notably Den Bla Avis and the Petrobras Junior Team and won the Formula 3000 title in 2000 with Burno Junqueira. The principal team members Paul Jackson, Charles Cooley, Gavin Jones and Richard Selwin are all former members of that organisation and the new team's base is just a few miles from the old headquarters at Griston. It is worth noting that Jonathan Williams, son of Sir Frank Williams, is also involved, as he was when the team was run in Petrobras colours.

It remains to be seen who will drive the second iSport car.