Engine question brings uncertainty
Team must obtain a suitable power plant to continue.
Red Bull might have dropped its well-known slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings,” but the energy drink company may indeed fly away from Formula One after the 2015 season.
“For me it’s not an option. We have to find a solution, and I’m working very hard to ensure the team is on the grid and competitive next year and beyond,” said Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, during a news conference Friday at Circuit of the Americas.
That may be Horner’s take, but he acknowledged that team owner Dietrich Mateschitz could opt to leave F1 after the season concludes at the end of November.
“It’s his team at the end of the day,” Horner said.
Led by former driver Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull was the gold standard in F1 from 2010 to 2013, winning four consecutive constructor and driver championships.
In 2014, though, Red Bull’s Renault engine fell behind Mercedes and Ferrari models as F1 moved into an era of hybrid engines. This season, Red Bull sits in fourth in the constructor standings, and the team and Renault have agreed to part ways for 2016.
The decision leaves Red Bull and the other F1 racing team the company owns, Scuderia Toro Rosso, looking for an engine supplier for next season. And Mercedes and Ferrari aren’t simply going to hand a big-budget team a competitive engine.
Days after Red Bull and Renault divorced, Mercedes announced it wouldn’t sell engines to Red Bull. Ferrari is reportedly still being pressed for a deal, but the Italian company isn’t willing to sell a 2016 power unit to one of its fiercest competitors.
Ferrari reportedly has considered selling the Red Bull team a 2015 model engine. Red Bull also could buy an engine from Honda, but that isn’t viewed as a welcome option.
“The Red Bull situation is very interesting,” Leigh Diffey, the playby-play announcer for NBC Sports’ F1 telecasts, said earlier this week. “They want to compete and win, but they may not have the engine to do it next year. The question becomes: Are they willing to stick it out and struggle in 2016 and just wait for 2017 to be competitive?”
As Formula One readies for the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday, the situation has left a cloud of uncertainty surrounding Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat and their Toro Rosso counterparts Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.
“From my side, I’m still confident I’ll be racing (in 2016),” Ricciardo said. “Hopefully competitive. I think that’s more the concern.”
All four drivers have been questioned at length this week about their teams’ futures, and they either are in the dark or working on their best poker faces.
“Nothing has really changed the past couple weeks,” Kvyat said Thursday. “If you’d like, you can copy and paste what I said last time.”