Red Bull reveal Wolff block after ‘handshake deal’ with Mercedes

Helmut Marko has revealed how close Red Bull came to switching to Mercedes engines after deciding to ditch Renault.

The start of the current turbo-hybrid era in 2014 saw Mercedes romp to success as it chalked up championships and grand prix victories, whilst its rivals floundered in its wake, not least French manufacturer Renault.

Although Daniel Ricciardo won three grands prix that year, and Red Bull finished second in the constructors’ championship, the cracks in the relationship between the team and engine supplier led to breaking point the following campaign.

Red Bull continued to use Renault power for a further three seasons, albeit with the engine branded Tag Heuer, before switching to Honda in 2019.

Prior to that, however, Marko had managed to convince team owner Dietrich Mateschitz to join forces with Mercedes, setting up a deal with the late Niki Lauda, then the team’s non-executive chairman, only for the three-time F1 champion to be over-ruled by a now bitter rival. 

“In 2014, when the new engine rules came in, our engine supplier, unfortunately, couldn’t make a competitive engine,” said Marko, speaking on the Inside Line podcast, about Renault.

“There was quite a big rivalry with Mercedes, and also our boss [Mateschitz] was not a big fan. I said, ‘Listen, with our engine, we can’t motivate people anymore, because everybody knows with this engine you can’t win’.

“So we had a deal with Mercedes, a handshake deal with Lauda, which was not supported by Toto, so the deal didn’t happen.”

Inside information led to Red Bull-Honda deal

With the clock ticking on Red Bull’s existence in F1, and it was staring down the barrel without a PU supplier, it turned to Honda.

The Japanese manufacturer had returned to F1 a few years earlier, but a season after the introduction of the new PU rules, and paid the price as it endured three torrid years in partnership with McLaren.

For 2018, Honda linked up with Toro Rosso, before it joined forces with Red Bull in 2019. By the end of 2021, it had turned Max Verstappen into a drivers’ champion, with constructors’ titles following in 2022 and again last year, with the RB19 proving to be the most dominant car in F1 history.

“We went to Honda,” added Marko. “Honda, at that stage, failed to be competitive with McLaren, but I had some inside information on what they were planning to do, so we said, ‘Yes, we go ahead. We take this risk’.

“I believed it wasn’t a risk because I knew how much they had spent on dynos. They were serious about it.”

Referencing then-McLaren driver Fernando Alonso’s disparaging “GP2 engine” comment during the 2015 Japanese GP, Marko said: “So then we changed engine.

“At that moment it was, how did [Fernando] Alonso say, F2 style or power, or something like that, a brave decision. We always took brave decisions. So a little bit no risk, no fun.”