Red Bull back themselves to a corner over engine crisis

Photo from Mark Haggan.

Amid Red Bull’s current engine crisis ahead of the 2016 season, Red Bull reissued their threat to quit Formula One if they do not find themselves with a competitive engine for next year.

Their current supplier, Renault, have been the victim of much slating from the Milton Keynes outlet, after failing to meet the team’s requirement in this new turbo era of Formula One. A war of words between the two earlier in the year has seen the relationship turn sour; Red Bull-Renault’s honeymoon period was well and truly over.

After Monza, where Renault were shown up by the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes on the lowest-downforce, highest-speed circuit on the calendar, Red Bull asked to terminate their contract with Renault. This left them with 4-5 months to find themselves an engine supplier for next year – a tall order indeed.

The only viable options were Mercedes and Ferrari, and although a Mercedes deal looked to be set, the German manufacturer has chosen not to supply them. And with good reason, why would the team currently dominating Formula One hand over the ace up their sleeve to a team with what could potentially be a better chassis?

Rumours of the VW Group entering the sport with Red Bull appeared to be their ‘Get out of jail free’ card. The idea was that VW would buy the team in 2018, with Red Bull remaining as a major sponsor, and Ferrari would supply the team in the meantime.

However, since then VW has come under heavy fire in the US for cheating emissions tests on their road cars. It looks as though the scandal will set the company back some $18billion in fines, not to mention the overall devaluing of the company. It has also seen the resignation of their CEO Martin Winterkorn, who was the main man behind getting VW into Formula One.

Also Red Bull have declared that whether or not they leave the sport depends on what Ferrari deals them for next year. They want the same power unit that Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen use in their works cars. But after the display Red Bull performed in Singapore, why would Ferrari give them that?

Why would anyone want to supply a team with which you run the risk of being hammered in the public eye by the senior management?

So Red Bull are without an engine for next year at the moment. They’ve put off the two best manufacturers in the sport at the moment, and have shunned the only manufacturer willing to supply them for 2016.

Red Bull are, therefore, in no position to negotiate. So why don’t they just pull out of the sport? Because, despite their current lack of success within the sport, the company still makes a sizeable profit from being in Formula One. They also have to consider the hundreds of people employed not just by Red Bull, but by Toro Rosso as well.

It’s no wonder, then, that people don’t seem to taking this quit threat seriously, and fans are beginning to lose their patience with the team.

Red Bull’s best option is to take the Ferrari engine, and accept that their engine performance will not quite match that of the works team. Like Mercedes do with their customer teams, Ferrari may give them the same spec engine and hardware, but will keep the best software and hidden settings, ones that enable them to get that little bit extra from the engine, for themselves.

Patience will be positive for the team as well. The fines that VW face may be distracting VW from Formula One at the moment, but I sincerely doubt it will stop them to enter in the future. And I’m sure there are other members of the board who want to enter, not just Winterkorn.

But if you still think Red Bull are going to quit, just remember they signed the Seventh Concorde Agreement which keeps them tied to the sport until 2020. Staying in the sport for the next five years will bring them much more money than they would spend trying to get out of that contract.

#f1 #F1 #redbull #vw