Red Bull’s ‘insider information’ on new PU partner after Wolff blocked Mercedes deal

Toto Wolff and Helmut Marko.

Helmut Marko revealed that Red Bull had a “handshake deal” in place to use the Mercedes power unit, before Toto Wolff said no, sending them down the Honda route.

When the V6 turbo-hyrbid power units first came into Formula 1 in 2014, Mercedes emerged as the benchmark, while Red Bull’s relationship with Renault would begin to break down as the partnership’s title-collecting ways faded.

Toto Wolff blocked Red Bull Mercedes PU customer deal

And as Red Bull started to look at alternative options, senior advisor Helmut Marko revealed that a “handshake deal” was reached with then Mercedes non-executive chairman, the late great Niki Lauda, to use the Mercedes power unit. That was until team principal Toto Wolff put a stop to it, according to Marko.

“When 2014, the new engine rules came, our engine supplier unfortunately couldn’t make a competitive engine,” Marko began on the Inside Line F1 podcast.

“And we tried… Even so there was quite a big rivalry with Mercedes, and also our boss [Dietrich Mateschitz] was not a big fan. And I said, ‘Listen, with our engine, we can’t motivate people anymore, because everybody knows this is an engine you can’t win [with].

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

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With the Mercedes deal not coming to fruition, Red Bull took a “risk” by partnering with Honda, off the back of their McLaren split after an unsuccessful reunion.

Honda powered the Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso for 2018, before the main team also switched to Honda in 2019.

Marko referenced Fernando Alonso’s infamous “GP2 engine” comment aimed at Honda, but at Red Bull, it is a case of “no risk, no fun”.

That being said, some “insider information” which came Marko’s way also helped to sway that decision.

“And then we went to Honda,” Marko continued.

“Honda, at that stage, failed to be competitive with McLaren, but I had some insider information what they are planning to do.

“So we said, ‘Yes, we go ahead, we take this risk’, which I believed it wasn’t a risk, because I knew how much they spent on dynos, you know, AVL [RACETECH] is in Graz, and so I knew what they spent. So they were serious about it.

“So when we changed engine, which at that moment was, how did Alonso say? F2 style power, something like that, so we always took brave decisions. So a little bit, no risk, no fun.”

That risk paid off handsomely for Red Bull, the team claiming three Constructors’ and four Drivers’ titles with Honda power, but this era comes to an end in F1 2026, at which point – as the new generation of power units arrive – Red Bull become a manufacturer in their own right, working in partnership with Ford.

But the goal remains the same, to win.

“I think the next benchmark is we will have our own engine,” said Marko, “which is an enormous, enormous project from the financial side, as also from the management side.

“So we will be, yeah, we will be now a real manufacturer. So that will start in 2026 and in the future, our focus will be on winning races. Yes, winning races with our own engine and make always a benchmark.

“You know, as in the beginning, we do it differently, and that should be also the aim for the future.”

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