It seems that the championship-winning Red Bull – Renault partnership will be coming to a halt in 2016, according to unnamed sources.
Autosport reported yesterday that Infiniti Red Bull Racing will no longer be running Renault engines next season, despite the fact that their contract doesn’t run out until the end of 2016. As of right now, it’s unclear how Red Bull plan to get out of their contract, but those very same sources are adamant in saying that Renault will not fight them on it legally, accepting a partnership termination document that has already been issued.
The fact that Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat had to use their seventh engines of the season in Monza, may have been pushed Red Bull to this decision. Their grid penalties were substantial as they started from the back of the back.
Even so, the duo finished the race P8 and P10 respectively, which just goes to show that with a strong engine, that Red Bull chassis should be able to shine a lot brighter and maybe even challenge Mercedes for the constructors title.
Speaking of Mercedes, they are of course a serious option for Red Bull in 2016, as is Ferrari. Both factory teams are running highly competent power units – though one would imagine that Red Bull wouldn’t settle for anything less than the very best, especially after two incredibly disappointing seasons in 2014 and 2015.
What this means for Toro Rosso is somewhat unclear, though it’s understood that they’ll need to find another supplier as well.
As for Renault, everything indicates to them returning as a Works team in 2016, which just begs the question of how confident are they in building a power unit able to immediately take on Mercedes in terms of straight line speed and reliability?
At this point, it seems like only time will tell.
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