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Red Bull Team Principle Christian Horner has told Sky Sports that Renault will need a further 2 or 3 years before they are on a level playing field with Mercedes and Ferrari.
Renault has powered the 8-time champions Red Bull for the last nine years, but due to mediocre 18 months, where the Renault Power Unit has been bellow par, therefore a divorce between the two is looking a certainty.
"There's really only two engines out there that you can compete for grand prix victories with and, unfortunately, Renault have fallen behind that. It looks like it's going to be at least two to three years before they can be in a position to compete again."
Renault is set to become a works team again, with a takeover at Lotus is to be announced very soon. Critics have claimed that Red Bull are their own-worse-enemy, through publically criticizing their engine partners via the media, which has driven the French Manufacturers out. Sky Sports Pundit Anthony Davidson, believes this to be the case, "What manufacturer wants to be associated with that kind of potential public slating weekend after weekend?" In an interview with SKY, Horner was asked to respond to Davidson's comments
"I doubt it," Horner said in an interview with Sky Sports F1. "Perhaps we have been guilty of being honest, whether that is my comments or Adrian Newey's comments or Helmut Marko's or most important of all Dietrich [Mateschitz]'s as he is paying the bill at the end of the day.
"I don't believe that would have an impact on influencing any other supplier."
Red Bull has openly admitted that it wants a competitive engine for next year, meaning that it will have to be either a Ferrari or Mercedes 2016 Power Unit. Anything less, it will mean that the sport will lose two teams.
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G. Zhou
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Replies (5)
Login to replyscf1fan
Posts: 58
Hmmm, and didn't RB agree to the terms that made it VERY difficult to develop a PU or it's sub-systems during its lifespan Mr. Horner? (Now there is one thing I think a majority of people might be happy to see rid of . . . but that raises the cost issue again.) So, lets be honest . . . and be honest! RB and it's brain trust picked the wrong PU, sometimes that happens . . . so what has complaining about it so publicly done for RB/RBR? If Renault really are 2-3 years away from being satisfactorily competitive now, didn't you realize that when you started carping about it? Realistically, could you ever have expected Renault to suddenly pull a rabbit out of the hat and be competitive? (In which case hasn't your previous criticisms of Renault been a tad self serving?)
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Renault is still performing much better than Honda, and Honda isn't getting nearly the bad press that RBR is. From the outside, it appears that the management of RB/RBR has more interest in Winning or Leaving than it does in the sport or the efforts of the rest of its team. Sometimes, like in many American sports (and as at Ferrari not so long ago for that matter) it's the management that needs to be shaken up.
Dr Red Bull
Posts: 41
Renault and the other Engine Manufactures demanded these Power Units.
NONE of the teams wanted them.
It was just the sad fact, that Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault blackmailed F1 to bring these awful V6s in. Whilst I accept that one day F1 needs to look at these Power Unit, I am afraid it has come way too early and that is evident through the fuckups which Renault, Honda and Ferrari (First Year Only) have had
khasmir
Posts: 893
RB should not have criticized Renault so badly in the media, that's not the way to treat your main partner/supplier. Keep that stuff behind closed doors.
Even though they have been let down by Renault, which can only be explained by a lack of commitment.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I agree on both parts. I am honestly beginning to question if Renault will be able to catch up as of now, they've improved very little so far, and its truly worrying that they havent spent tokens until now, and the upgraded PUs will likely never be used this season.
scf1fan
Posts: 58
@Dr Red Bull - MB, RB, McLaren, Ferrari (and I believe one other TEAM, but none of the smaller teams) all have members on the various technical committees. Since some of these are also engine/PU builders, I fail to see the distinction you are making. And . . . if my understanding of the Concord agreement (or what remains of it) is correct, the teams had to agree to the changes. I didn't say they all liked it.
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At that time RB decided to continue with Renault. No fault to them. In hind sight it just wasn't the best decision. On the other hand, Williams made a good decision to go with the MB even though McLaren was dumping them. I think most of us are somewhat perturbed by RB due to their management's reaction to the situation, not the situation itself.
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You don't like the V6 hybrid, I get that. Regardless of how you feel about them technologically (and I would prefer more open options personally) all the teams had to play by the same rules. Some just did it better then others. Honda would not be in F1 if they couldn't run a hybrid, so I don't agree with your comment that none of the teams wanted them. (Certainly few teams wanted to pay the cost of them, but LeMans shows that hybrids can be the dominant technology.) You mention Renault, Honda, and Ferrari all in the same breath, all have or are struggling, yet it is really only RB that is threatening to leave. That is what we don't understand. That the team that has won the most in the last 6 years, that gets perhaps the second sweetest deal in F1, and that has made every decision to place them where they are, is the one acting in such an unsporting manner.
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I do wish that the engine/PU configurations weren't so locked in place so the teams would at least have some hope of achieving some significant improvements. Maybe RB should have been lobbying for that, before they decide to play the exit card.