F1: Is Red Bull Racing Stuck in a Corner?

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Just over a decade ago, they bought out the F1’s Jaguar Racing team. A few seasons ago, they won four consecutive world drivers and constructor’s championships.

Now, the Red Bull Racing team, and its sister squad, Toro Rosso, are fighting for their lives to remain in the sport.

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It seems strange that the two teams were simply having huge success, especially the senior team, with so many world titles and a dominate figure in Sebastian Vettel. However, in 2014, new engine regulations which began with the introduction of the new hybrid engines were a failure for the team’s engine supplier, Renault, and it got even worse this season, with the team finishing lower than they had imagined.

But Red Bull began their tirade of criticizing the French manufacturer right from the start of this season. It seemed that the engine supplier had not been fully committed to the project, according to Red Bull. And even if they had, the new engine regulations had kept them from updating their engine. Only 12 tokens were to be used for the upgrades and only four engines could be used before penalties would be enforced.

So far, Red Bull and Toro Rosso have both been using all four engines to the point where they had to just repair the old power, which was the only way to avoid further penalties.

However, this weekend in Austin, Texas, the Renault engine supplier have upgraded their engine to where they have used 11 of 12 tokens, a sign to where the power could make a difference. Renault themselves have been the last team to upgrade their engines with these tokens, following Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda have recently done theirs.

Now back to the point with Red Bull. Both them and Toro Rosso can take the engine and be penalized, or just forget it and continue on what they have. The recent announcement by Red Bull to split from Renault as their supplier for next season, has not made things any easier. The Milton Keynes, England, team with the Austrian sponsor got stuck in a problem when it was announce that either Mercedes or Ferrari would not give either team an engine. Although the prancing horse has offered a 2015 model, next year’s new rules have forbid this and Red Bull personally have rejected it.

So now what? No Renault, as the French company are getting close to taking possibly over Lotus and branding it as a works team, and both have been rejected by two of the top teams for their engines, so is this the end? It certainly does not get any easier for the duo with the wings. It seems like the withdrawal of the team entirely from the sport can be only saved by Renault, only if they demand an apology from Red Bull about the insults by Helmut Marko, Christian Horner, Adrian Newey and especially Red Bull CEO Dietrich Mateschitz. This is something that the Austrians simply will not do: at least not yet. And if they do, Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has already made up his mind that he will not spend his time on customer engines.

So why the upgrades? Simply put, Ghosn wants the engine to perform now so they can put it into next year’s car as a successful one. This is why there is hesitation from Renault. A good engine means a good performer and money for the company.

If it wasn’t already bad enough, the head of the F.O.M (Formula One Management) Bernie Ecclestone, is threatening to sue Red Bull and Toro Rosso, if they both pull out before their contract expires in 2020. And a late possibility of Cosworth power certainly will not appeal to Red Bull anyway, so what is the solution to this problem?

It will certainly come down for them to straighten out the mess they put themselves in, and only time will tell if their name will continue with the sport.

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