Horner on…
…Renault
Have you seen quick enough progress from Renault since the start of the season?
“Renault got themselves in to a situation where reliability was consuming all of their resource, time and focus. I think the whole focus of the company has been on reliability as opposed to performance and it’s only been recently that they have been able to start focusing on trying to sort performance out.”
Now Renault is looking to change tack, with a takeover of Lotus look probable. Will that change things from Red Bull’s point of view if you become a customer of a constructor?
“We already are a customer, we currently pay for the engines anyway and we always have. But we have an agreement with Renault which is quite clear as the premium team, so irrelevant of whether they have their own team or not, we obviously have an understanding until the end of 2016.”
So if they purchase their own team, you’d still have priority?
“That’s what our agreement is.”
You’d imagine Renault would focus on its own team after 2016, so would you have to look externally for a new partner?
“Potentially. But 2017 is still a long way away. I think our focus is on the back end of this year first and then 2016. 2017 is a whole new ball game, particularly with the new regulations.”
