Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton warns Mercedes against supplying Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton has warned Mercedes not to supply rivals Red Bull with engines if it ends its partnership with Renault.

Red Bull's future engine supply is uncertain with Renault set to take over Lotus and return to F1 as a constructor. Such a move would leave Red Bull seeking a new supplier in the near future, but Hamilton says there is no benefit to Mercedes doing a deal as it would just lead to a bigger threat to the works team.

"I think if we're serious about winning world championships, probably not," Hamilton told Sky Sports when asked if Mercedes should supply Red Bull. "What can I say? Red Bull is a great team. It would be like giving Ferrari our engine - we're here to win.

"We don't really need it, there's no financial benefit in it really. I think we're good where we are."

Daniel Ricciardo believes Red Bull can target joining Ferrari as Mercedes' closest challengers from the Russian Grand Prix onwards, once it receives a major power unit upgrade from Renault. The French manufacturer is set to spend all 12 of its development tokens on a new power unit next month.

Click here for Chris Medland's Italian Grand Prix preview and bold podium prediction.

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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.