Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Red Bull trying to force Renault’s hand

Red Bull wants clarity over Renault’s future in the sport and is keen to force the engine manufacturer in to a decision.

Renault has been linked with a takeover of the Lotus team in order to return to F1 as a constructor, jeopardising its future relationship with Red Bull. As it stands, Red Bull has an agreement which prioritises it as a premium partner, but the speculation over Renault’s future has led to the four-time constructors’ champions moving to terminate the current agreement.

While the situation remains uncertain, F1i understands Red Bull’s actions are designed to push Renault in to a firm decision on whether it remains as supplier, takes over another team or pulls out of the sport altogether. Red Bull bosses are unhappy at the lack of progress over the last two years, which they believe is being further extended due to the current situation.

With tensions between the partners running high at the start of the season, Red Bull’s own struggles with its chassis in the first part of 2015 meant focus was elsewhere for a number of months. However, the four-time constructors’ champions scored a double podium in Hungary and followed that with strong race pace in Belgium as the power unit again emerged as the key weakness of the RB11.

Team principal Christian Horner likened Red Bull’s rear wing level at Spa-Francorchamps to the low-downforce Monza-spec all teams will use in Italy, while saying Williams was running what would be close to Monaco levels of wing.

While Horner would not publicly comment on reports the team has attempted to end its agreement with Renault early, it appears a resolution to the situation is nearing.

Click here for F1i's driver ratings after the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.