Renault impatience led to Honda deal, says Marko

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that the team wanted to wait until after the French Grand Prix this weekend to announce Honda as their new engine supplier, but Renault's impatience led to the deal being agreed quicker than planned.

Renault and Red Bull have exchanged verbal barbs over the last few months, which each party blaming the other as the reason why no deal could be agreed to extend the partnership, which has lasted 12 years.

The French manufacturer reportedly gave an ultimatum for Red Bull to decide on their future, and rather than being held to ransom, Red Bull opted to ditch them in favour of Honda.

“Actually we wanted to announce the decision after France,” Marko told Auto Bild.

“But Renault set an ultimatum that ended on Sunday. We had no choice. The new update, which could not be properly used in Canada due to unfortunate circumstances, brought three tenths of laptime.”

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also claims that Renault were eager for a decision to be made, and the team's performance in the Canadian Grand Prix ultimately made the decision for Red Bull.

“We decided that based on the information we had from Montreal – our decision, driven by engineering, was pretty clear cut in the end,” said Horner.

“So we felt that rather than things getting delayed, or taking further time, and Renault were also very interested to have a decision as soon as possible to get their own plans in place.

“So therefore we decided that the timing was right to make that commitment, make that decision, and hence the announcement.”