Now the team's owner Dietrich Mateschitz – also owner of Austrian energy drink Red Bull – piggybacked on that assumption, saying that his team will unlikely partner Renault in F1 for the long run, as he believes the French manufacturer doesn't plan to stay in the series too long.
“I suspect Renault does not intend to be in Formula One for so long,” said Mateschitz in an interview with Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten, when asked about a potential works partnership between Red Bull Racing and the French carmaker.
“That Renault does not have a long-term connection is for us a little bit of an uncertainty,” added the 63-year old billionaire, who will likely look to secure a new engine partner for his team starting 2011.
Last year, while in contention for the world title, Mateschitz publicly burst at Renault for the poor reliability in their 2.4 litre V8 engines, which caused Sebastian Vettel to tackle the remaining 2 rounds of the season with used powerplants (having exceeded the 8-engine allocation by the Brazilian race).
Consequently, Red Bull tried to secure a deal with German carmaker Mercedes, but Daimler AG's buying into the Brackley based team (formerly known as Brawn GP) meant that no other team was allowed to use Merc's powerplants in the 2010 season. It is expected that the Austrian team to again push for such a deal in 2011.
As for Renault, although the name of the French manufacturer is still part of the F1 roster this upcoming season, the fact of the matter is the majority stake in the team has been purchased by Luxembourg based private equity firm Genii Capital. Many believe this was the first step made by Renault to completely scrap their F1 operations in the near future.
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