Bernie Ecclestone says Red Bull’s problem with a lack of an engine supplier for next season has been concluded successfully and that, despite fears that the energy drink manufacturer’s owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, would withdraw his world championship-winning squad and their sister team, Toro Rosso, from Formula One, the 2016 grid would feature the expected lineup of 22 cars.
Ecclestone made his comments in the paddock on Friday although, without any clear confirmation, the engine supplier issue remains in considerable doubt. Red Bull have still to finalise what has become an acrimonious split with the current manufacturer, Renault, but equally have not secured a deal for an alternative.
Mercedes have declined to supply the team with power units – although they have done a deal with Manor, who represent no threat to the world champions. Honda have maintained their exclusive contract with McLaren. And negotiations with Ferrari had come to nothing when the Scuderia would offer only 2015-spec units. Mateschitz has made it clear he does not want to race without a competitive engine and set a deadline of the end of October for the situation to be resolved.
When asked about it, Ecclestone said: “Everything’s been sorted out, so I wouldn’t worry about it. We don’t want them to drop out. I think they have sorted it all out now.” He had met the Mercedes head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, on Friday morning but, although the latter said the topic of engines had not come up and their position had not changed, Ecclestone confirmed there would be a full grid of 22 cars next season.
Equally he was confident Mateschitz would be happy with the conclusion. “He’s never fallen out of love with F1,” he said. “He just wants to be in a position where he can be competitive and that is what will happen, and then he will be OK.”
However, no official confirmation has been made by Red Bull or any of the engine manufacturers. Sources have suggested a deal with Ferrari has moved no further forward and the Scuderia would not make any further comment. Ecclestone had met Red Bull before seeing Wolff and the team principal, Christian Horner, said no deal had been done. “There are lots of discussions going on but nothing is concluded, nothing is confirmed,” he said.
Ecclestone remained bullish in his insistence the issue had been dealt with but would not be drawn on exactly how. Pushed on naming an engine supplier he would only say “Wait and see. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
That a solution may have been found in an unlikely source was suggested later when Autosport reported Red Bull were back in talks with Renault. The manufacturer who has supplied Red Bull since 2007, a period that included four world championships for the team, is in the process of buying Lotus to form a works squad. After the souring of their relationship with Red Bull, Renault indicated that they were not intending to continue as an engine supplier, with Carlos Ghosn, Renault’s chief executive, saying in September: “Don’t count on us as a provider of an engine. It’s over.” They still have a contract with Red Bull for 2016, however, and it may be that Ecclestone has once again banged heads together to find a solution.
The teams could not undertake significant running in practice for the Russian Grand Prix here. The first session, topped by Force India’s Nico Hülkenberg, was truncated after a diesel fuel spill and the second, headed by Williams’ Felipe Massa, resulted in little running because of heavy rain, with neither Nico Rosberg nor Lewis Hamilton setting a time.
