20/04/2017
NEWS STORY
In all honesty we've been expecting it.
With Renault clearly not able to assist Red Bull mount a challenge to Mercedes and Ferrari - and even though he admits that the team hasn't delivered the chassis is should of done - Helmut Marko is already warning that the Austrian team might leave the sport.
Granted, such a move is a couple of years away, in 2021, but clearly the Austrian and his team wants to begin the sabre rattling early.
In 2015 the sport was thrown into turmoil when Red Bull threatened to withdraw both its teams as it found itself unable to get the engines it wanted.
Renault had taken a major step backwards, while neither Mercedes nor Ferrari was willing to supply a current-spec unit, certainly not to a team that posed such a threat to its works outfits.
As a result, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone were forced to get involved as the sport looked for a new, independent supplier willing to provide a competitive engine at a nice price.
After all the kerfuffle, not only did Red Bull stick with Renault - which powered the team to two wins and leapfrog Ferrari in the standings - team owner Dietrich Mateschitz subsequently denied the threats to quit F1 were serious.
However, while Red Bull looks ahead to the latest Renault upgrade, scheduled for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Marko is looking ahead to 2021, the year after the current engine formula runs out.
Still seeking a competitive, exciting, noisy and cheap engine, the Austrian issues a familiar warning.
Reminded that customer teams will always depend on their suppliers, when asked by the official F1 website if one days he hopes to see the situation change, Marko replies: "Of course... and not 'one day'.
"The latest must be 2021 that an independent engine supplier comes into F1," he continues. "This is more than necessary... and the engine has to be simple, noisy and on the cost side below ten million.
"We are talking about a much less sophisticated engine to what we have now, a simple racing engine.
"There are enough companies around that could supply. So we expect from the new owners together with the FIA to find a solution at the latest by the end of this season.
"If that doesn't happen our stay in F1 is not secured."
Potential suppliers, who should also accept that for their "below ten million" they will get none of the credit for any success but all the blame for the failures, should form an orderly queue.