Dietrich Mateschitz has openly flirted with selling off the Toro Rosso team but a combination of the worsening global economic outlook, which reduced the number of interested buyers, and the team’s improved performance in 2008 saw him change his mind. And while Red Bull’s primary commitment is obviously with its championship-chasing number one team, its commitment to Toro Rosso – essentially a vehicle for its young driver programme – is admirable.

It has also increased with the need for additional resources to fund the design and build of the team’s own chassis for 2010. The best estimates put the level of Red Bull’s contribution at around US$90 million. With little other external sponsorship – sponsors being even less likely to share space with the beverage on the junior team’s cars than its big brother – Red Bull’s contribution and the Formula One Management funding are seeing the team through as it morphs into a fully-fledged constructor.

The team’s expansion, neccesitated by the new rules dictating the team has to build its own car this year, as well as Red Bull’s necessary increased injection of funds, has however lifted it from its recent position of the team with the lowest budget in Formula One. In all likelihood the team is likely to be again mired in the midfield, with a raft of start-up teams virtually certain to be behind them.

The 2010 Formula One Black Book, published in April, will provide an in-depth team-by-team business preview to the new Formula One season. The Black Book also includes a comprehensive review of the 2009 championship, detailed analysis of every Grand Prix event and contact details of over 3,000 of the motorsport industry's major players.