RED Bull are increasingly looking at having to go back to Renault in order to secure engines for its Formula 1 cars for 2016, just weeks after negotiating their way out of the final year of their contract.
Naturally, after two dire seasons, it isn’t their first option. That would have been to complete a deal to use the all-conquering Mercedes engines from 2016 onwards, and in July they were very close to doing just that.
Then, according to F1’s commercial supremo and master wheeler-dealer Bernie Ecclestone, the team got ahead of themselves.
In defence of Red Bull, or Christian in particular, the reason they cancelled their agreement with Renault is so they could do the deal they thought they had done with Mercedes,” he told Autosport.That the deal never went ahead is a matter of record, with Mercedes F1’s non-executive chairman Niki Lauda suggesting it was Dietrich Mateschitz himself, the energy drink giant’s top man, who dropped the ball.
“I have to be clear — Christian and Helmut (Marko) wrote us one letter to say they would like engines. I said ‘yes, but first we have to discuss with Mr Mateschitz’ because Mateschitz, for whatever reason, never liked Mercedes,” Lauda told Sky Sports F1 last month.
“There is something in the past which I do not know. So I went to see Mateschitz myself because I know him and asked ‘are you really interested?’ and he said ‘yes, but, but, but …’.
“And then out of this ‘but, but, but’ we never continued any talks. So we had to take a decision as Mercedes: where did we go with the engines because are Lotus staying or are they not staying? So we then decided to give Manor the engines.
“We never came into to serious discussion (with Red Bull).”
The net result is that Mateschitz is threatening to withdraw Red Bull from the sport altogether for 2016, issuing his strongest ultimatum yet ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
With no further discussions on which way Red Bull is leaning — in the sport or out — Ecclestone believes Mateschitz is yet to make a final decision.
“Mr Mateschitz is fortunate enough to be able to pull the plug if he wanted to. He doesn’t have to ask anybody,” he told F1.com.
“He is used to winning and doesn’t want to be put in a position where he could be unfairly beaten. Unfairly! When he won the world championships he was competing on the same terms as anybody else. Probably he has not made up his mind yet.”
Each passing day that Red Bull does not have a 2016 engine deal is one day the team will lose in design and build time to adapt their 2016 machine to a non-Renault engine.
“My opinion is that they will be in trouble whatever engine they get because of the timing,” Ecclestone added, lamenting what he believes is the true reason Red Bull has found itself in its engine mess.
“The reasons why Ferrari or Mercedes don’t want to give Red Bull the same engine as they will race in 2016 is because they are afraid that they might get beaten — which is completely ridiculous.
“And should it really happen, then they should rush back to the drawing board.
“This is a sport that has competition it its DNA, not asset protection!”