Reports suggest that Red Bull Racing’s decision on what engine they will run in next year’s Formula 1 car will be made by the time the team arrive in Abu Dhabi next week.
Renault’s future in the top echelon of motorsport is still unclear after this year’s ‘Crashgate’ scandal and continuing global financial difficulties, though the French manufacturer are keen to keep the Red Bull relationship alive.
Despite earlier failures that left both RBR drivers with precious few new lumps in reserve – at one point, Sebastian Vettel sat out some Friday practice sessions to save on engine wear – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has praised the longevity of the Renault RS27s in Vettel and Mark Webber’s cars recently.
'Time is running out' – Dr Helmut Marko
However, Horner has also made no secret of his admiration for the “very good” Mercedes engine which powered Jenson Button and Brawn to both titles this season – and the vastly improved Force India which took pole at Spa and should perhaps have given Giancarlo Fisichella the first Force India win there, too. But McLaren, Mercedes’ first customer in the F1 queue, are reportedly vetoing any proliferation of the engine in F1, perhaps aware that an Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull Racing RB6 with the best engine in the hands of Sebastian Vettel will not exactly do their own championship hopes any favours in 2010.
Another option is the Cosworth engine being prepared to replace the Toyota in the back of the Williams next year. Cosworth, currently outside F1, will argue that their ability to develop and test their 2010 engine – rules now prevent existing engine manufacturers in F1 from developing improvements mid-season – gives them a competitive advantage. But with little opportunity to test for the longevity required over a race weekend in a system that limits numbers of components and penalises teams who exceed those limits in a season, their likely reliability is open to question.
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Toyota are the outside-bet fourth supplier in the reckoning, but what price a Ferrari engine? Red Bull passed on their contract with the Prancing Horse to sister team Toro Rosso for 2008, only to watch as that engine grew in power and performance, handing the Italian ‘minnow’ team an advantage and their first win at Monza, while winless Red Bull looked on jealously as they struggled with their new Renault units. Another valuable customer for their engine might be a trump card in the hand of Ferrari, who were vociferous earlier this year in the face of FIA suggestions that cost-cutting might see a standardised Cosworth engine in every F1 car, something no Ferrari purist could stomach.
In any case, we will know soon. “We have four options: Mercedes, Toyota, Renault and Cosworth. We are examining them in detail,” Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko has said, also adding: “Time is running out.”
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