Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

'Difficult to envisage' staying with Renault - Horner

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Christian Horner says it is "difficult to envisage" Red Bull staying with Renault in 2016, insisting talks are ongoing with Ferrari.

Reports on Friday suggested Red Bull's request for Ferrari power units had been rejected, leaving it without a supply for 2016 and opening up the possibility of the four-time world champions having to attempt to save its Renault partnership. While Horner admits the door is not firmly closed on Renault, he says it would surprise him if the pair continue together.

"Nothing is officially finished with Renault," Horner told Sky Sports when asked about the possibility of staying with its current supplier. "There’s a lot of speculation. It’s difficult to envisiage we go forward but this is Formula One and nothing is impossible.

"We’re still waiting to hear what are Renault’s plans for the future -- are they going to buy Lotus, are they going to stop themselves? Everything is particularly in the air."

Saying all but Mercedes engines remain an option for Red Bull, Horner says he is confident of securing the team's future in F1.

"There’s lots of rumours and everybody’s got an opinion, what we should and shouldn’t do and so on. I think we were a victim of our own success and you can understand the trepidation that other manufacturers that have their own teams have in terms of supplying us.

"But we’ll find a solution, we’ll find a way through it and hopefully we’ll find a achieve something that gives us the opportunity to fight for race wins in the future."

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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.