Red Bull pondering a shock switch

Media reports on Wednesday said that Infiniti Red Bull Racing and its Junior Torro Rosso team are considering a switch to Ferrari powered engines. The former 4x Constructor Champions and their junior team have both run on Renault engines together (the main team, much longer than its junior) since the new Turbo-charged V6 engine regulations were rolled in, in 2014.

The 2015 has been a disastrous one so far for Red-Bull. The former champions, the only team to have taken a race win in 2014 from the dominant Mercedes have been plagued with reliability issues with their underpowered Renault units.

Both teams have had drivers retire from the races due to engine trouble. The Red Bulls’ Daniel Riccardo is already using his 4 permissible unit, with 4 allocated for the entire season. The cars have been off the pace. The team has only finished in the top 5 once (Monaco). The most embarrassing thing for red bull was to have former driver, Sebastian Vettel lap them at the Malaysia.

Red-Bull have expressed their disappointment of the lack of progress made by Renault compared to other manufacturers, with Ferrari seemingly have reduced the gap to Mercedes (although, not enough). Team Advisor Helmut Marko as well as Team Owner Dietrich Mateschitz has threatened to pull out of the sport if regulations are not changed. Renault have countered this threat that they would withdraw, if their reputation is damaged or the business is no longer lucrative.

According to the reports, Ferrari are willing to supply engines to the Austrian outfit and its junior team for the 2016 season. Ferrari however, are said to be giving an engine of “B” status that would be 20-30 horsepower down on the engine used by its Factory Team.

Helmut Marko said: “Even a B-version of the Ferrari would be better than the A-version of the Renault.”

It remains to be seen if Red Bull and Torro Rosso who are contracted to use Renault power for 2016 do stay on the grid or switch power units, or pull out.