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Minardi Fans to Keep Name Alive

With the acquisition of the Minardi Team by the Austrian energy drinks giant Red Bull being sealed, the teams fans are worried that the name Minardi could disappear from the F1 grid after twenty years of heroic struggle against all odds. To prevent this from happening,forzaminardi.com, an unofficial supporters site, has set up an online petition to keep the Minardi name in F1.

Immediately after the sale, a Red Bull spokesperson said that the name of the team wasgoing to be decided on later but rumours from within the company strongly suggest, that Red Bull will rename the team. Robert-Jan Bartunek, founder of Forza Minardi, can see his team slipping away andbecoming Red Bull II.

It is not the deal itself we are worried about. Red Bull has pledged to keep the team inFaenza and the company has the financial means to take the team up the grid. All of this would be meaningless however if we lost the name of the team.