The disruption was the closest Vettel came to an upset and there were echoes of his quadruple world title romp with Red Bull as he calmly won by 1.4 seconds.
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The finer details of the deal remain unclear, but Red Bull re-issued a quit threat at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix via its motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
“Red Bull and VW have been in on-and-off talks for more than a year and I understand that the fundamentals of a deal for the sale of the team have been agreed,” said Jordan.
The F1 Commission is set to vote later this month on a plan to cap engine prices at 12 million euros for current specifications and 8 million euros for year-old power units.
“An arrangement whereby VW would take it over, becoming the fourth major manufacturer in F1, and Red Bull would continue to enjoy the high profile that comes from a major sponsorship suits both parties.”
Mercedes will not supply Red Bull with an engine in 2016, which appears to leave Ferrari as the team’s only viable option.
“If we do not have an engine, we cannot race, that is obvious”, the Briton added. Ferrari were rarely troubled by the Brackley team and even the previously dismal Red Bull never really looked anxious .
Red Bull’s pace in Singapore is not strictly a surprise given its efforts in Monaco and Hungary, but while it was still largely “best of the rest” there, this weekend it was arguably more roundly competitive than it was at any point in 2014.
Ricciardo was third quickest behind Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen in an outstanding second practice session for Red Bull which put championship-leading Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg firmly on the back foot.
“As the lights go off we will try and overtake the Ferraris”, he said. “We have only half the people that the other team has”.
“Today we are ahead, but maybe that will change tomorrow…”
“We have already alerted the F1 authorities and told them: ‘Don’t count on us as a provider of an engine – it’s over”, Ghosn was quoted as saying by bbc.co.uk on Tuesday.
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“We have to start in early October with the design of the vehicle , otherwise it will not be ready in time”.
