Details emerge of Red Bull-Mercedes “handshake” deal which Toto Wolff blocked

Helmut Marko has revealed Red Bull were close to agreeing a deal to use Mercedes F1 engines - a move which was ultimately blocked by Toto Wolff.

At the start of the hybrid era in 2014, Red Bull were uncompetitive relative to Mercedes, which dominated the first three seasons.

Red Bull’s performance was limited by their engine supplier, Renault.

In a bid to become more competitive, Red Bull assessed alternative options in terms of power unit supply.

Red Bull would ultimately remain with Renault until the end of 2018 after neither Mercedes or Ferrari agreed to supply them with engines.

Unsurprisingly, their rivals were concerned if they had the same power unit they’d beat them given the Red Bull chassis still tended to be competitive.

Speaking on the Inside Line podcast, Marko shared a story about Niki Lauda striking a deal with Red Bull before it was halted by Wolff.

“In 2014, when the new engine rules came in, our engine supplier, unfortunately, couldn't make a competitive engine," Marko said.

“There was quite a big rivalry with Mercedes, and also our boss [Mateschitz] was not a big fan. I said, 'Listen, with our engine, we can't motivate people anymore, because everybody knows with this engine you can't win'.

“So we had a deal with Mercedes, a handshake deal with Lauda, which was not supported by Toto, so the deal didn't happen."

Red Bull ultimately joined forces with Honda in 2019 after the Japanese manufacturer’s miserable partnership with McLaren ended two years earlier.

Their decision to partner with Honda proved to be a fruitful one, returning to championship-winning ways in 2021.

“We went to Honda," added Marko. "Honda, at that stage, failed to be competitive with McLaren, but I had some inside information on what they were planning to do, so we said, 'Yes, we go ahead. We take this risk'.

“I believed it wasn't a risk because I knew how much they had spent on dynos. They were serious about it."

“At that moment it was, how did [Fernando] Alonso say, F2 style or power, or something like that, a brave decision. We always took brave decisions. So a little bit no risk, no fun.”