Mercedes denies ongoing negotiations with Red Bull
- Published on 07 Oct 2015 12:03
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- By: Rob Veenstra
Toto Wolff has hit back at Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner's claim that negotiations about a supply of engines for 2016 are back on. Horner told the Red Bull-owned Austrian broadcaster Servus TV this week: "There are two competitive engines in formula one -- Mercedes and Ferrari. There are talks with both."
Earlier, however, Mercedes team boss Wolff had ruled out jumping to the rescue amid Red Bull's engine crisis, but Horner insisted: "The decision does not lie with Toto Wolff. It is at a higher level than that." But Wolff said at the Camp Beckenbauer global summit in Kitzbuhel, Austria: "They (Red Bull) negotiate, but not with us."
"In the summer we talked with Red Bull," he is quoted by SID news agency, "then we analysed the pros and cons but there were no concrete negotiations. In September we stopped them (the talks) anyway," Wolff added. (GMM)
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Replies (4)
Login to replyTonyB
Posts: 18
This is exactly the reason that Mercedes do not want to supply engines to Red Bull. Red Bull management will continue to undermine their suppliers and competitors by these type of remarks. TW is the lead man in Mercedes Racing, he is a part owner and I am sure he has 100% support from the Mercedes Board. Horner is an arrogant fool.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Yup, Daimler AG hold great trust in Wolff, and I agree that they will more than likely listen to his advice first and foremost before making a decision. I dont think Red Bull is in a position to demand anything, even less an A-spec engine, seeing as its their own fault they got themselves into this mess. Should be satisfied with what they're offered. Chances are, they'll be competitive with a B-spec engine either way, it will at least be twice as reliable as their current PU.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
I see it a bit different. TW is/was afraid of RB building a better chassis and would therefore beat them. Merc not suppying an engine is based on that. Ferrari seems to have the same doubts. Supplying an PU that produces less power would already put RB in losing situation, I think they have as much right to the engine as Williams, Force India and Manor. The only reason why they are not supplying an engine is because they built an chassis that is superior to theirs. If you are an F1 PU supplier, you should not be entitled to pick and choose. This is the reason why mcLaren went with Honda, they do not want to be depended on if a PU supplier that runs their own team. Remember Williams came close to Merc; and now merc has a new PU with more power which none of the PU user teams has access to. TW is protecting Mercedes racing and wants to minimize the change of them being beaten. I like Horner and TW the are just fighting their own corner. Horner is no fool.
khasmir
Posts: 893
Merc has always said supplying 4 teams is the maximum. When the decision was made to supply Manor, this closed the door for RB.