Red Bull is believed to be closing on a Ferrari deal for 2016 after agreeing to split with current engine supplier Renault at the end of this season.
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However, he stresses the deal has not been concluded, while Helmut Marko told SkySports F1 that Red Bull will walk away from F1 if it doesn’t secure a competitive engine supply for 2016.
“The decision is done”.
“You can clearly see that there are two competitive power units in Formula One and you do not have to be a rocket scientist to work out which two those are”, Horner told Press Association Sport.
In May Marko said: “If we don’t have a competitive engine in the near future, then either Audi is coming or we are out”.
Marko also gave the firmest indication yet that Red Bull’s deal with Renault had been terminated a year early.
“The most important thing for us is to have a competitive power unit and whilst that may have a short-term impact, the longer-term gain far outweighs that”. “So we decided we will split”.
“The separation from our engine partner at the end of the season is by mutual agreement”, he told Salzburger Nachrichten.
“Unfortunately what we have seen within the new regulations is that Renault has dropped behind, and as a customer if you’re with any other product and that product is not working, you change it. You couldn’t put the teams through that any longer”.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has consistently denied that the team have held talks with the VW Group.
Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz agreed that a deal with Volkswagen won’t be done in the short-term, but thinks it could be a possibility going forward.
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He said using a Ferrari engine would be “a very acceptable solution for the next two or three years” but a contract with the Italian company was not finalised. “We will either exit or run our own team”, Renault boss Carlos Ghosn said last week.
