Renault gives Red Bull an ultimatum

Renault insists that Red Bull has to make a decision on its 2019 engine choice before next week’s French Grand Prix, although the Milton Keynes team says it wants to wait until after the Paul Ricard event.

Red Bull has been evaluating Honda’s progress with sister team Toro Rosso since the start of this season. After initially saying that it would make a call in the summer break, more recently the team has cited the Austrian GP (June 29-July 1) as the time for a decision, allowing it to evaluate the latest specs from the two suppliers in both last weekend’s Canadian GP and the looming French race.

But now Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul (below, right, with Red Bull chief Christian Horner and Alain Prost) says that Red Bull has already had plenty of time, and if a decision is not made soon the French manufacturer will withdraw its offer, leaving the team with Honda as its only option.

“I guess they have all the information that they need now,” Abiteboul told Autosport in Montreal. “I don’t see why they are going to further delay the decision, as far as we’re concerned. Past a certain date we will not be in a position to maintain the offer that we’ve made. It’s very clear. As per the regulations, it was May 15, and then we accepted to extend that a little bit on the back of 12 years of good collaboration.

“As far I’m concerned it was Montreal that they wanted to wait for our new spec, Honda’s new spec. They have all the information, I see no absolutely no reason to delay that any further. And frankly, we will not be able to maintain the offer for very long.”

Red Bull has made clear that it wants to stick to its schedule. Asked by Autosport about Abiteboul’s desire for an answer before the French GP, the team’s Helmut Marko said simply: “He won’t get it.”

Marko said the team needs time to study the data from Canada: “It’s in the bank, and we’ll have a look at it, and that’s why we won’t come to a decision until Austria. We will have facts which we are waiting for, and we want to make the right decision.”