Mateschitz criticises Renault, writes off title challenge

[Scott]

Hard not to agree with him.  I absolutely detest this rule.  It is not fair in any way.  It doesn't save money for Red Bull, but it could well cost them millions.  I hope as a result of the Red Bull / Renault issues, someone will see the light, either in FOTA and/or the FIA and cancel this rule for next year.  Maybe there's another way to work it, for instance charge a fine to the manufacturer itself if engines don't last more than 3 races and practice or something like that.

From F1 Live:

Dietrich Mateschitz has contradicted Red Bull Racing's boss and drivers by admitting that the team's 2009 world champion challenge is now over.

With a poor race at Monza on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel dropped to 26 points behind drivers' leader Jenson Button, while Red Bull now trails Brawn by more than 40 points with just four races to run.

Asked by the Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten if Red Bull's challenge is over, the team owner Mateschitz answered: "Actually it was even before Monza. It's because our engine is inferior and the fact the rules limit each driver to eight engines for the year."

Mateschitz suggested that he expects Vettel to have to take a ten-position grid drop later this season for using a ninth engine.

"Of course, a race victory is not impossible, but that we can achieve upper positions with our two drivers four times is not expected," he said.

"From now we can't even drive much in the practice sessions because we have no spare engines, which is a strange competitive condition."

Red Bull is expected to switch to Mercedes power for next year, but Auto Motor und Sport on Monday suggested that contact has also been made with Ferrari. A final decision is expected imminently.

Asked whether he is satisfied with the performance of Red Bull Racing in 2009, Mateschitz answered: "Sure. Our improvement this year was tremendous. But the best car and the best driver alone is sometimes not enough.”

[Jericoke]

I do wonder how much money it costs to actually make an F1 engine.  I can understand they don't want to be in the days of a driver burning through 3 engines in one weekend, but surely the difference between 8 and 9 is going to be a savings on the order of 10s of thousands of dollars (I know I don't have that much to throw around, but surely an F1 team can be expected to have it). 

Most of the cost is in the R&D, and being able to sell a extra dozen customer engines would help control the R&D costs.  It would ALSO make quality control more cost effective.  It's possible that, in terms of overall cost to the sport, a few extra engines per team might not be a net difference at all.