F1 has got itself in a right pickle. There is the Red Bull racing team, winner of both the Constructors and Drivers championships for four years in a row, and now they are reduced to pedal power!
With the new engine regulations, the previously dominant Renault engines have been sadly lacking in the power output department. So much so that Red Bull wriggled themselves out of their contract with Renault which was supposed to run till 2016 as the performance just was not there. The reason for that was Red Bull had an agreement with Mercedes to use their engines, and Mercedes has been head and shoulders above the rest for the past two years.
Exploding Renault engine.
Only problem was that Mercedes backed out of any engine deal. After all why should they supply engines to a very real rival?
So Red Bull went to Italy and knocked of the door of Ferrari, to be met with a very polite, “sorry”. They would supply ‘customer’ engines to Toro Rosso (the junior Red Bull team), but no engines with parity to the factory race engines.
All that was left was Honda, who have had the slowest engine all year, but they are adamant that they can deliver for 2016. So Red Bull went cap in hand to Honda, to be told in no uncertain terms by Ron Dennis who has persevered with the Honda hand grenades all this year, that Red Bull could kindly eff-off.
F1 needs Red Bull, and a competitive Red Bull. About all that is left is for them to return to Renault, which is running its own team next year, so any Red Bull engines are very much ‘customer’ grade by this stage.
Watch this space!
