Renault to stop supplying engines to other F1 teams

The French manufacturer – who helped Red Bull win a fourth consecutive world championship double less than two years ago – could still take control of financially struggling Lotus, although Ghosn says they “don’t have a clear decision yet”.

“Renault has done a fantastic job in the past supplying [Red Bull] with a strong engine and the latest technique that was required to be competitive in the blown exhaust era”.

But Red Bull are doing “necessary due diligence” in talking to other engine suppliers, with the team expected to use Ferrari power next year after failing to come to an agreement with Mercedes.

Renault no longer plans to be just an F1 engine supplier and Red Bull is set to turn to Ferrari for a supply of engines after being rebuffed by Mercedes.

“It is sad to hear because I was part of a majority of the partnership and we had very successful years which unfortunately now gets forgotten very quickly because of the situation”, said Vettel ahead of this week’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Asked if that meant Red Bull would not be on the grid, Horner replied: “It is a risk, and it is a risk that should not be underestimated”.

“(If) we try to be as professional as we can, we can have a trouble free weekend hopefully and that will put us in the points”, he said. Instead they went into panic mode, throwing as many engine updates as they could at the problem and consequently discovered more problems than results.

However, Renault, which now has a contract to supply Red Bull with engines in Formula 1 until the end of 2016, is looking to either buy its own team or exit the sport at the end of this season.

Red Bull have been fiercely critical of Renault and are on course to finish only fourth in this season’s championship which will see them lose out on an estimated £13million in prize money.

“We will be sitting down with Renault to discuss that before committing or having anything else to talk about publicly”.

Mercedes and Renault-Nissan have been engaged in a joint venture partnership in road cars for nearly six years, co-developing vehicles, opening factories and sharing resources together.

“My preference is what’s fastest whichever is going to give us the better chance of victory is what I want”, said Ricciardo.

“We have been as patient as we can but we cannot afford for there to be further damage through a lack of competitiveness that this power unit now represents”.