Red Bull made to wait longer as F1 engine freeze vote is delayed

Red Bull is facing another two-week wait for a vote on whether Formula 1 will introduce an engine freeze from 2022.

According to team advisor Helmut Marko, Red Bull has agreed on a deal to continue using Honda’s power unit after the Japanese manufacturer leaves F1 next year, a move which depends on a vote to freeze engine development.

That vote was expected to take place on Monday but it has been delayed and will now not take place for at least another two weeks when the F1 Commission next meets in February.

"The agreement that still existed on Friday was no longer there on Monday,” Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr. Helmut Marko told Motorsport-Magazin. 

"There are more talks and negotiations.”

Following Honda’s decision to pull out of F1 at the end of the 2021 season, Red Bull has made it clear its intention is to take over the intellectual property of the Honda engine rather than becoming a customer of another manufacturer, something it believes would hamper its bid to challenge reigning world champions Mercedes for world titles.

In order to avoid the high costs of developing the engine in-house, Red Bull has been pushing for a freeze on F1’s engine specification to come into effect from 2022, allowing both Red Bull and its senior team AlphaTauri to continue running Honda’s power units.

After initially being against the idea of an engine freeze, Red Bull’s rivals Ferrari have since come around to the proposal, while Mercedes has also indicated its support.

Should Red Bull fail to get the green light to continue running Honda engines, Renault, as the manufacturer supplying the fewest teams, would be obliged to provide Red Bull power units.

Despite admitting that Red Bull would have to “drastically rethink its F1 situation” should the engine freeze proposal not go ahead, Marko has insisted the team’s stance is not “blackmail”.