Former F1 champion Red Bull "topped the timesheets" in Singapore Grand Prix practice on Friday and then issued another warning that it would quit F1 unless it secured a competitive engine, according to Julian Linden of REUTERS. Confirming that the team's fractured relationship with Renault "was set to end," Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko said,
"If we don't have a competitive engine, we will leave Formula One. We always have been a customer, we always paid for our engine, we never got it for free. The performance was just not there and so we decided we will split."
Marko "was commenting after Renault head Carlos Ghosn made clear this week that the French carmaker would either buy a team or leave the sport, rather than remaining as an engine supplier to others" (REUTERS, 9/18). SKY SPORTS' William Esler reported rumors re-emerged on Friday evening "linking the Volkswagen Group with a takeover of the team." However, Red Bull said that the speculation is "wide of the mark." With Mercedes "unwilling to supply a team that could challenge their dominance and Honda's unit performing worse than Renault's, that leaves Ferrari as seemingly the only option available to Red Bull in the short term." Asked if that meant a switch to Ferrari power, Marko said, "I don't want to go into details, but what's clear is we want a competitive engine, because with these regulations you saw at Monza we were two seconds behind.
Red Bull Founder Dietrich Mateschitz went further, telling Austria's Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper, "The separation from our engine partner at the end of the season is by mutual agreement. There was no sense in working together any more. You couldn't put the teams through that any longer" (SKY SPORTS, 9/19).
HITTING A ROADBLOCK: The AP reported proposals to introduce a cost cap on supply of engines and a ban on wind tunnels "have run into opposition from Formula One teams."
The F1 Strategy Group -- comprising the sport's governing body FIA, the sport's commercial arm run by F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone and the top six teams -- "reportedly approved the two proposals by split votes."
The proposals "would need to pass further approval from regulatory bodies to come into effect."
Mercedes, one of four current engine suppliers in F1 and a team that supports the ongoing use of very expensive wind tunnel technology to aid aerodynamic development, "opposed both proposed measures" (AP, 9/19).
