Former world champs warn "it's Ferrari or nothing" if they are to stay in F1; Team expected to walk away if Scuderia offer year-old engines
Friday 9 October 2015 11:14, UK
Red Bull could be forced out of F1 as both victims of their own success and outspoken condemnation of Renault, the Sky F1 pundits have warned.
The team, in the process of splitting from long-time partners Renault, are threatening to leave the sport at the end of the season unless they secure a competitive supply of engines. After Mercedes opted against becoming their rivals' power providers, Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted last week "it is Ferrari or nothing".
While the former world champion's repeated threats to leave F1 have been met with scepticism in some quarters, the Sky Sports F1 pundits believe that Red Bull's history both on and off the track makes their exit - along with junior outfit Toro Rosso - a very real prospect.
"The threat of Red Bull pulling out is very serious and it is likely if they don't get their way," declared Anthony Davidson at Suzuka.
"Without a competitive engine why should they stick around? After winning so much they don't enjoy trundling around in midfield, they want to be winning races and they deserve to be winning races. But they have created a problem for themselves in the way that they have treated Renault. What manufacturer wants to be associated with that kind of potential public slating weekend after weekend?"
And there's second a problem: do Ferrari want to take the risk of offering a supply of their engines to a customer which could then defeat them on track?
"Red Bull are also a victim of their own success because the people who are willing to look past the prospect of public slating are thinking, 'we can't supply them because they are so good, their chassis people are so good that they might beat us'," suggested Ted Kravitz.
"Ferrari might well think and team boss Maurizio Arrivabene may well be saying to [Ferrari president] Sergio Marchionne, 'look if Ricciardo had had a Ferrari power unit in his car in Singapore he might have beaten Vettel so what are we doing?'"
Ferrari are reputed to have only offered Red Bull with a year-old supply of engines, a prospect which would almost certainly result in the Milton Keynes outfit walking away for F1.
"A 2016 engine is no issue at all," confirmed Horner. "We would sign on the dotted line as soon as we were able."
Then there's the question of whether Red Bull could realistically expect to prosper as customers even with a brand-new set of Ferrari engines. McLaren have been vocal in their belief that only a 'works team' can win in F1's new engine-centric age - an argument tacitly endorsed by the struggles of the Mercedes customer teams, deprived of their all-important source code, to keep pace with their suppliers even when armed with the field-leading power unit.
"I would be surprised if what Red Bull manage to get out of their Ferrari engine and package is the same as what Ferrari manage to get out of their power unit package," suggested Kravitz.
Red Bull will be well aware of the dangers of junior status: ten years ago, the team split from Ferrari in order to form an alliance with Renault in which they were eventually sustained as 'premium partners'. But less than a week after Red Bull's apparent long-term gameplan became public knowledge amid claims that Volkswagen were set to buy into the team, it already appears that their cunning plan has come a cropper.
"In Singapore we did flag up the problems that VW have had recently and that has only got worse in the last few days, so it has hard to see that F1 is going to be on the mind of Volkswagen-Audi Group any time soon," noted Kravitz.. "That makes that kind of link-up much less likely that it was five days ago."
Red Bull, meanwhile, are awaiting an official response from Ferrari regarding an engine supply for 2016 - and clarity about what type of engines they could expect. "Subject to concluding an agreement with Renault that would be our priority," Horner confirmed to Sky Sports in Singapore. "We have had healthy dialogue with Ferrari and are awaiting feedback."
