Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

Renault should prioritise Red Bull over own team - Marko

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Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko says Renault should prioritise his team over its own factory outfit.

A frustrating 2015 season saw Red Bull publicly criticise engine supplier Renault amid reliability and performance problems, before the team attempted to switch to one of Mercedes, Ferrari or Honda. With no deal possible, Red Bull ended up remaining with Renault but will re-badge its power unit as Tag Heuer in 2016.

Renault has since completed the takeover of Lotus to return as a constructor this season, but Marko believes it would be better off focusing on Red Bull than its own team.

"We are contractually secure and we have the same status," he told the Salzburg Nachrichten newspaper. "When I look at the current Lotus (Renault) team, if Renault has any sense, they should concentrate on us because with that team and drivers they will achieve virtually nothing at all.”

Before the Renault takeover, Lotus lost Romain Grosjean to new team Haas, with 2014 GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer replacing him. There is also uncertainty over the second seat, with Pastor Maldonado looking likely to lose his drive to Kevin Magnussen.

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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.