Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Marko issues Red Bull quit threat

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Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko says the four-time world champions could leave Formula One amid the current regulations.

Christian Horner has called on the FIA to rein in Mercedes after the 2014 world champions made a dominant start to the new season with a one-two in Australia. F1i understands Stefano Domenicali continues to investigate ways of Audi entering the sport, and Marko claims there could be a team available for purchase if Red Bull decides it no longer makes sense to race under the current regulations.

"We will evaluate the situation again [in the summer] as every year and look into costs and revenues," Marko told Austrian media after the Australian Grand Prix. "If we are totally dissatisfied we could contemplate an F1 exit.

"The danger is there that Mr Mateschitz loses his passion for F1."

And Marko believes the current technical regulations “will kill the sport”, saying it is not the direction Formula One should have taken to switch to V6 turbo engines.

"These power units are the wrong solution for F1, and we would say this even if [Red Bull supplier] Renault were in the lead. The technical rules are not understandable, much too complicated, and too expensive.

"We are governed by an engineers' formula. We wanted cost reduction too, but it is not happening like this. A designer like Adrian Newey is castrated by this engine formula. These rules will kill the sport."

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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.