Too many engines to choose from?!

Front Entrance
By Gordon Miller
March 15 2005

Gordon's Corner looks at the engine manufacturers battle for Red Bull Racing in season 2006. There are many people interested in supplying the engines for the team, and i have a look at the options the team has.

With this season just started, the recent talk this week is already on next season. With a fantastic start at Melbourne, I was concentrating more on celebrating other than what engine we will be using next year. Earlier this week though, alarm bells started to ring.

 

This week Red Bull Racing has been linked with Toyota, BMW, Ferrari, Cosworth and Honda to supply the engines for our 2006 season. This has started a massive discussion regarding what would be better for the team.

 

Toyota and Honda engines are lacking reliability. They may be powerful engines with a lot of experience but the cars they supply haven’t finished many races. The other factor that may come into the decision is, Will the manufacturer require any addition clauses? Do we want to see Sato racing for Red Bull Racing just because we have a Honda engine! The way I see it, is that the team should decide what happens regarding the team and drivers. The engine manufacturers should have NO say in this. I will not accept a second rate driver for our team just to keep an engine manufacturer happy.

 

 

BMW looks likely to be losing there Williams contract due to the possible merger with Sauber. BMW will want to keep there finger in Formula 1, but we still await Williams to get to the top flight of Formula 1. The McLaren, Ferrari and even Red Bull Racing themselves were quicker than the BMW engine at Australia. Would this be a step back?

 

The Ferrari engine is certainly impressive. The have won countless championships with the engine and it does seem to get better every season. Ferrari will be wanting to have another team to test there engines now there losing the Sauber contract. This would also produce some much needed funds for the team. I would prefer not to be playing second fiddle to another team in regards to our engine manufacturer but if we have to choose out of these engines apart from the Cosworth, this would be my choice.

 

The Cosworth engine has started brilliantly this year. With a great performance in Melbourne and no obvious problems, things are looking bright. This weekend should let us know how reliable the engine is as this is the second race weekend they have been used. If they can survive two weekends and have a competitive race, then this could possibly help Christian Horner to keep the Cosworth engine.

 

The Cosworth engine is reported to be costing the team $20million a season to produce the engines for the team. Alternative manufacturers would save the team up to $10million a season which could be invested elsewhere, but I personally feel that we should keep the Cosworth contract and build the foundations for a race winning team.

 

Post your thoughts on this on the message board.

 

Cheers,

Gordon