Dietrich Mateschitz has thrown further doubt about Red Bull’s long time participation in Formula 1, especially if the outfit cannot get a competitive engine on its cars.
The Red Bull owner wants the Red Bull Racing team to be a competitive entity in the sport, and is targeting to be best of the rest behind the manufacturer Mercedes and Ferrari outfits, but will not be satisfied to be fighting further down the grid
“We are too good to be domestiques, Formula 1 is not the Tour de France,” said Mateschitz to the Red Bull-owned Speedweek website.
“If we are not competitive from an engine point of view, we will leave. For sure we don’t want to spend the next five years fighting for P5.”
“[We want to be] P3 behind the manufacturers’ teams. We should win the fight against the customer teams of Mercedes and Ferrari.”
Mateschitz believes Adrian Newey’s Red Bull RB12 is a ‘masterpiece’ and should be more than a match for the other teams on the grid, including the factory Renault outfit, which returns to the sport in 2016 after taking over the reigns of the Lotus F1 Team.
“The new staff from Renault Sport are professional, passionate and determined,” said Mateschitz. “Our new car is one of the best we’ve ever made.
“Its performance is great. In short: It’s another masterpiece of Adrian and his team.”
