Former world champs officially lodge their entry onto next year's grid
Friday 13 November 2015 22:48, UK
Red Bull have confirmed they will stay in F1 as they close in on a solution to their long-running engine crisis.
The former world champions have officially lodged their entry into next year's World Championship - although they haven't yet finalised their engine supply.
"We've entered the World Championship," team boss Christian Horner revealed to Sky Sports News HQ. "So as long as we sort our engine predicament out, absolutely we'll be there next year.
The future of both Red Bull and junior outfit Toro Rosso has been shrouded in doubt throughout 2015 following the warning of Dietrich Mateschitz, the Red Bull owner, that he would pull out of F1 unless they were given a 'competitive' supply of engines.
Confirmation that Red Bull will continue to use an iteration of Renault's power units in 2016, while Toro Rosso will swap to a year-old supply of Ferrari engines, is expected at the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP.
"As soon as we've got something to say, we'll let you know. Anything else at the moment is just speculation," said Horner. "All I can tell you is we're homing in on something and as soon as we've got something to announce you'll be at the top of the list."
Both teams are also poised to confirm unchanged driver line-ups for next season, leaving Daniel Ricciardo alongside Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull while Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz will continue to form one of the most exciting partnerships on the grid at Toro Rosso.
"It's nice to know," Ricciardo said after second practice for the Brazilian GP on Friday. "I always had faith I would [drive] but it's nice. It's the first step towards a better 2016, so it's good news."
Red Bull have publicly savaged Renault, their partners for four successive title doubles between 2010 and 2013, since the sport was reset as an 'engine formula' following the switch from V8 to V6 units last year.
But after Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda, via partners McLaren, all rejected Red Bull's request for a power supply, the former world champions are believed to have reached a compromise agreement with Renault which will entail the team using embellishments designed by engine guru Mario Illien around the central pillar of Renault's 2015 V6.
"It will be the basic Renault engine with which they end this season with: the Mario Illien, Ilmor-inspired improvements that will be finalised over the winter bolted on," explained Sky F1's Ted Kravitz.
"This improved Renault engine that Daniel Ricciardo is debuting this weekend does not have the Illien-inspired improvements on it because Renault, much to Red Bull's frustration, decided it wasn't worth it and they didn't like them.
"Red Bull have a different view on that and they do rather like them. Illien, an engine genius, is an old mate of Adrian Newey's and Newey trusts him and wants him to freshen-up the Renault engine."
Whether or not such an arrangement would represent long-term solution for the former world champions is up for debate, however. Running parallel to Red Bull's engine crisis, is a wider power game being played out between F1's rulemakers and its leading engine manufacturers.
On Friday, the FIA began the process for independent engine makers to come forward and register interest in supplying a cost-effective 'alternative' engine from 2017. Horner has confirmed such an engine would be an attractive proposition for Red Bull if it could compete with the existing V6 power units.
"First of all we'd have to look what regulations surround those engines, the competitiveness of that engine, but if it was a guaranteed competitive engine then absolutely," he said.
"At the price that they're talking about, it would be a no-brainer. If you look at the issues that are currently surrounding power supply and the prices of power supply at the moment - upwards of 30m euro - it's just too much money."
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