Red Bull & Renault: Together again?
November 3, 2009 by Negative Camber
Filed under Prime & Option, Top Story
Red Bull are reportedly looking to stay with Renault as their engine supplier for the 2010 season according to German media, and now covered by Autosport.
The second-place finishers in this years constructors championship were long-rumored to be seeking an engine supply deal with Mercedes for the upcoming season but apparently the details of the deal are where the devil resided. According to Autosport, they deal may have fallen through leaving Red Bull to seek a retention for their Renault supply.
Maybe it’s supposition on my part but this makes sense. two engine failures in never good in a season but in the long run, RBR have had good luck with the French lumps and who actually thought Mercedes would make it easy for their main rival to share the same shove as McLaren and Brawn GP?
The option were Ferrari (supplying sister team STR), Toyota (rumored to be leaving the sport within a few weeks, and Cosworth (untested from a reliability stand point). As it is, Renault seems to be the evil they know instead of the evil they don’t know…specifically in the case of Cosworth.
The one remaining mystery is what will become of BMW’s F1 engine program? Surely if the wayward team does find a way tot he grid, it will be pushed by the famous lump from Munchen but there were rumors of a McLaren interest in purchasing the program. Surely Red Bull could launch itself into the future as a full constructor by owning its own engine program and if Qadbak’s boys from Bavaria don’t get the coveted 14th spot in the grid, chances are someone in the Rhine will be looking for some cash.
According to Red Bull, the lack of refueling in 2010 may play in to their hands a the Renault is stingy will its fuel use and could be a champ in the mileage game (starting to sound like NASCAR):
“Since Monza, Renault have remarkably raised their game and done everything they could for us to have such a strong finish of the year”, said Christian Horner.
“Renault has fuel-efficient engines which will be very important in 2010.”
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Re: Mercedes reliability.
I must admit the first thing that went through my mind after Lewis’s issues at Abu was that his “brake” problems were engine related.
Maybe the Mercs aren’t as good as everyone suspects.
Better than experimenting with Cosworth.
Yeah, true. Peter Windsor made quite a statement on Sundays broadcast that many in pit lane consider the BMW the strongest lump in F1 right now. Interesting indeed.
Could it also be that without The Flav, renault is finally focusing a bit more on the engine and those “reliability” upgrades? I hope, but this looks more like a case of nowhere else to go.
I don’t think anyone has had to take an engine penalty. That’s pretty amazing when you think that many teams were quite worried in the past 4 to 6 races. The fact that Vettel can finish the season on what must be a very secondhand donk and win so strongly is really something.
Isn’t the Ferarri engine supposed to be a bit less efficient? I remember at least once this year the commentators were surprised that the Ferarri had to pit a lap or two earlier than expected/calculated and put it down to it’s extra thirst.
That is a great point. I forgot that after the sebs two blown lumps in one weekend, they ran three races (I think) on “three race” engines.
Six wins, three straight to close out the year, is nothing to sneeze at. Plus the consensus opinion is that the Renault is frugal compared to other engines. Newey hand-picked the Renault when he came Red Bull. He shouldn’t second-guess himself now that they are in prime position to contend in 2010.