Mercedes engine to power Red Bull as Renault relationship sours?

Matt Majendie 07:28 24/08/2015
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  • Dissatisfied: Red Bull.

    The Belgian Grand Prix threw up the good, the bad and the ugly of Formula One. Once again Lewis Hamilton provided the good, proving himself to be a class apart as he led home the seventh Mercedes one-two with team-mate Nico Rosberg yet again coming off second best.

    The bad was unquestionably the dramatic blow-out for Sebastian Vettel that cost the Ferrari man a third place and which he claimed in an angry rebuke to Pirelli would have cost him his life if it had been 200 metres earlier.

    While Hamilton’s win and the explosive end to Vettel’s weekend grabbed the headlines, the bigger issue was the ugly simmering below the surface all weekend… in fact all season. Red Bull and Renault are going through a messy divorce, which from before the season even started has been very public, with plenty of mud-slinging from either party to explain the team’s struggles this season.

    There is no doubt that Red Bull have been beset by the lack of pace which is head and shoulders their biggest issue above everything else. It has been their Achilles heel all season long, all the more frustrating as they have one of the most aerodynamically impressive cars, understandable under Adrian Newey’s tutelage, which is somewhat more part-time these days.

    But what happens next could be impact on the sport as a whole. Renault insist they still have a contract with Red Bull for next season while the sport’s previously dominant team are adamant that they are clear to look elsewhere with the French engine supplier having not met certain criteria in what is clearly a very complex contract, such is the way of F1.

    Both Renault and Red Bull have talked about walking away from the sport altogether while, at the same time, Renault has sounded out the possibility of becoming a manufacturer once more while Red Bull have looked for a new engine supplier. As things stand at the moment, the only viable option is Mercedes but the German manufacturer has been reluctant to make a deal with the team that was last season their closest rival.

    Over the course of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, the hierarchy at Merc’s stance changed and a partnership with Red Bull looks to be on the cards for next season whenever the legal loopholes are cleared with regards to Renault.

    – Belgian GP: Hamilton wins at Spa, extends lead
    – Belgian GP: Vettel bemoans qualifying error
    – F1 drivers: Who’s the quickest out the blocks?

    The change of position is an interesting one in many ways, with Mercedes’ global bosses going over the heads of their F1 chiefs Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda, and effectively saying they would rather power the Red Bull than see Dietrich Mateschitz pull the plug on what has been a monstrously successful partnership in the sport.

    It is, in short, a rare moment of a rival in F1 doing something for the wider good of the sport, which has rarely been the case in the machinations of this elite motorsport over the years. But more cynically one could argue it is a good alternative way for Mercedes to sell cars, which after all is the driving force behind them being in F1 in the first place.

    Red Bull and Mercedes are totally opposite brands appealing to very different audiences. By tying up with Red Bull – as seems to be the case after their latest talks at Spa – Mercedes can open up a younger market with money to spend on cars.

    The stumbling block, one would assume, has been the reluctance of an F1 team to help a rival but the higher echelons of the global brand are coming to the conclusion that having rivals is clearly better than not.

    So where exactly does that leave Renault? Well, publicly the company will argue that nothing has changed but it is hard to see how the partnership can continue with Red Bull when the relationship has been so sourly frayed.

    The most obvious fix is for Renault to take over Lotus, the team it once owned. Lotus has struggled financially but Romain Grosjean showed the team clearly still has the talent to make a quick car with his third place yesterday, and the company still boasts good people.

    The other facet that makes it more likely is the simple fact that Bernie Ecclestone is behind the deal and, as F1 has found over the years, what Bernie wants he usually tends to get through the many power struggles that have played out during his tenure. Quite how this deal will work is another matter.

    Lotus is indebted to a number of sources and so Renault could potentially take on that debt or else wait for it to go into administration before making its move. And it becomes obvious where Ecclestone lies with him not wanting to lose another team on a potentially dwindling grid, which would not go down well with the various race promoters who pay millions a year to host F1 races.

    So, for now a certain disharmony surrounds F1 as is its custom that may not be as eye-catching as what took place through the likes of Eau Rouge but is certainly more wider reaching for the whole sport.

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