Renault engine blamed for Red Bull's lack of competitiveness this season
Tuesday 25 November 2014 17:56, UK
An unfreeze of F1’s engines has moved a step closer according to Christian Horner, who says Mercedes have accepted the “need to provide a window to introduce competition.”
Red Bull relinquished their Constructors’ Championship in Russia for the first time since 2009 to the Silver Arrows, with the new hybrid Renault engine taking much of the blame for their lack of competitiveness.
Horner believes his team are losing a second per lap to top Mercedes customer team Williams, let along the works team, while Renault, Ferrari and 2015 returnees Honda are all keen to see the regulations relaxed, with development work allowed in-season.
The Team Principal doesn’t believe, though, that Bernie Ecclestone’s suggestion that the technical regulations need a complete revamp is practical.
“In terms of technical and sporting regulations I think they are pretty fixed,” he told reporters after Sunday’s United States Grand Prix.
“There was a very encouraging meeting yesterday between the engine manufacturers and Mercedes have accepted that they need to provide a window of opportunity to the others to introduce competition. But I cannot see beyond that any real changes to the technical or sporting regulations because of course every time you change it has a detrimental effect on costs.
“Mercedes participated in a constructors’ discussion so they haven’t actually agreed to anything as yet. But there was a very constructive discussion yesterday which hopefully will see a solution in place in the very near future.”
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has been the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race in 2014 and Horner doesn’t believe it would take much for them to be able to regularly challenge the dominant German marque.
“When you look at the deficit in power, to actually be taking on and beating Williams, it is at least a second that we are giving away in horsepower at the moment. So if we can just find some of that deficit, even half it, we should be able to start to race with or put the pressure on Mercedes.”
Red Bull are currently second in the Constructors’ Championship, 245 points behind Mercedes and 125 points ahead of Williams.
