German media say Red Bull-Mercedes is possible
- Jul 27, 2015
- 2 min read
The rumours surrounding the future engine supply for Red Bull have not gone away and have been further emphasised by a report by German publication AMuS over the weekend.
Although the suggestions that Red Bull would either like to build their own engine, or get manufacturer support from car giant VW have gone away, at least for the moment, questions are still be raised for the short term considering what is now a fractious relationship with their current engine supplier Renault.
Renault fell behind the curve in the new V6 era and have fallen yet further behind in 2015 which hasn’t pleased Red Bull who have gone all in on the Renault engine together with the sister team Toro Rosso. This isn’t something that has happened overnight, but from 18 months ago when we saw the disastrous winter testing, even though they did win during the season.
We saw around the Silverstone Grand Prix weekend that Red Bull were looking at Mercedes as an alternative, maybe with Aston Martin branding. AMuS have gone one step further. They claim that Mercedes is the only credible alternative to Renault as Ferrari would only give them a year old engine. If Red Bull were to leave Renault you would have to think Toro Rosso would do the same, and they link them to Honda, even though the Japanese engine manufacturer has had a very difficult start to 2015 and have already said they only wish to supply one team, McLaren.
All of this would happen if two elements would fall into place. In order for Red Bull to get out of their contract which ends with Renault at the end of 2016 a change of the Renault side would have to take place. This would be either a total pull out of the sport, or if they bought the Lotus team.
The Renault/Lotus link was strengthened over the weekend, although nothing has been formally confirmed. With Lotus at the start of a multi-year Mercedes deal, it wouldn’t be surprising if a deal could be arranged for Red Bull to take it over.
The question mark would remain over Toro Rosso, who would unlikely get a Mercedes engine. Retaining Renault would also be unlikely which would leave them with year old Ferrari engines or the Honda.
The next few weeks are going to be really interesting in the Red Bull world.
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