Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Red Bull is showing "odd behaviour" by trying to force through a power unit deal.
Red Bull terminated its partnership with Renault a year early despite already having a request for Mercedes power units turned down. With the four-time constructors' champions threatening to quit F1 if it doesn't secure the power unit deal it wants, Lewis Hamilton described Red Bull's attitude as "really odd" and Wolff agrees with his driver.
“I’d like to quote Lewis, it’s an odd behaviour," Wolff told F1i when asked if the potential of Red Bull leaving the sport is concerning. "We have had very, very difficult times from 2010 onwards, Ferrari has had a long spell of difficult years, I think McLaren are not in an easy situation either and Williams the same.
"This is the nature of competition, you have good times and bad times and it is important to not lose sight of that and I think loyalty and building of sustainable relationships is key.
“Losing Red Bull would be definitely not good for Formula One so I hope they will sort their situation out.”
With Bernie Ecclestone working hard to try and help Red Bull secure a deal, Wolff says he understands Ecclestone's need to try and retain a competitive team.
“I think it is Bernie’s main focus to keep all teams on board and make the sport attractive and make it a very close competition. So it’s just normal that he’s trying to sort out a team or help a team which is in difficulty.”
Andrew LewinAndrew 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.