Ahead of his home grand prix in Austria, Red Bull billionaire boss Dietrich Mateschitz is clearly displaying the strains of the team’s struggles and he is again making noises about departing Formula 1.
Speaking to Speed Week, Mateschitz asked, “What else has to happen that we will lose our motivation completely?”
Both the Red Bull owned teams (including Toro Rosso) have had a woeful year, in the wake of a dominant phase between 2010 and 2013. Despite a strong driver line-up in both outfits, Mateschitz laments, “There is no driver and no chassis which is able to compensate for this lack of horsepower.”
Renault have not delivered a power unit which can compete with Mercedes, although last year they were the best of the rest with Daniel Ricciardo managing three wins, of which a repeat this year is highly unlikely.
And Mateschitz, who founded Red Bull which today is worth over $10 billion, makes no bones about where he believes the blame lies, “They [Renault] take from us not only time and money, but also the will and motivation.”
Although Red Bull have a contract with Renault until the end of 2016 and are contracted to F1 until 2020, Mateshitz said ominously, “You can’t force someone to stay when he wants to leave.”
Red Bull and Renault are going through their very own ‘War of the Roses’ and with a divorce appearing increasingly likely, Ferrari have entered the picture as a possible replacement engine supplier while Mercedes have always said they are quite willing to supplymore teams.
This latest salvo, launched by none other than Red Bull’s uber boss, on the eve of his very own race in the Styrian mountains, is likely to have interesting repercussions. Watch this space…