Red Bull pulled back from its engine deal with Ferrari because Renault wanted a closer pairing, Adrian Newey says.
The Austrian squad’s technical boffin shied away from criticising its former supplier Ferrari, whose supply of customer V8 power has been transferred for 2007 to the junior Toro Rosso team.
But, after penning title-winning Renault-powered cars with Williams in the past, Newey admitted that Renault offered better conditions for Red Bull.
Referring to Ferrari, he told ITV: “We paid them money and they gave us an engine. That was essentially the relationship.”
He insisted that Renault was not motivated by profit in signing a customer engine deal, but rather the benefits of collecting twice the data.
Newey said: “And that puts a different tone on the relationship, and one which I’m very happy with.”
Team boss Christian Horner also enthused about the change of engine supplier, insisting that Renault doesn’t consider Red Bull as a sort of ‘B’ team.
It is rumoured that the Ferrari deal was also more expensive.
Horner explained: “There are no stipulations within our (Renault) agreement that say we must finish behind a Renault.”
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