Audi to save Red Bull?

Red Bull‘s frustration with Renault’s failure to make highly competitive hybrid engines may result in the team exiting Formula 1.

Helmut Marko, the Austrian team’s motorsport adviser, said a solution could only be found if the team manages to get a competitive engine or if it joins forces with Audi.

“If we don’t have a competitive engine in the near future, then either Audi saves us or we are out,” said Marko and denied that there are (still) no formal talks with the German manufacturer which is part of the Volkswagen group.

“There are so many rumours. Officially there was no request or talks. The VW Group first has to sort out who will be the new chief of support, who will run the brand of VW, and when they have sorted all these things maybe then they can think about what they are doing in motorsport,” Marko said.

Red Bull has a contract with Renault until 2016 and as the other teams, it has a contract with Formula 1 until 2020. Red Bull has had a very successful partnership with Renault but now it seems like that is a thing of the past. Bad phases in sports are not uncommon but it seems like the  Austrian team is a bit too impatient.

“I hope the reliability issues are solved pretty soon because it is really depressing to see how much we are losing on the straights. Renault can also see the problems and we have to try and find a solution for these problems together. It is not only reliability, it is also that we did not run most of the practice sessions because of other issues. It is also a quality problem,” told Marko to BBC.

Team owner Dietrich Mateschitz earlier said that there is a possibility that it might exit the competition, so this year could be decisive for Red Bull.