Oliver White
Renault have confirmed that they will be working with Red Bull next year, supplying engines to one of the energy drinks teams. Although neither company is willing to confirm which team the engines will power for 2007, Red Bull are looking good with Ferrari also under contract for next year.
Recently, Red Bull have been trying to pass their current Ferrari contract to sister team Toro Rosso. This would make way for the all-conquering Renault unit for the senior Red Bull Racing team. This is something new aerodynamicist Adrian Newey is particularly fond of, having won many races and titles with the French engine manufacturer. However, it has been reported that Ferrari are less than keen to move their engine to a different team, claiming that although they are working with Red Bull, the engines they supply are for Red Bull Racing alone.
It is understandable why Christian Horner (Team Principal) and Dietrich Mateschitz (Owner) would want to move the Ferrari unit to Toro Rosso, as the marketing possiblities would be good for the PR-savvy squad. Toro Rosso is in essence a re-badged Minardi (which is also in essence, a re-badged Scuderia Italia), who sold to Mateschitz in late 2005. Minardi had strong relations to Italy, having based themselves in Faenza, Bologna. But from Ferrari’s perspective, they want glory and prime-time exposure, which is something Red Bull Racing would not want to sacrifice for the junior team.
A tough decision that is curently being negotiated being the two different parties. But if Horner’s current record of successes is to go by, I’d say that he will get his way and Toro Rosso will take a sizeable step up next year.
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