Red Bull owner slams F1

In an interesting bit of timing Dietrich Mateschitz the owner of energy drinks company Red Bull has declared that the company could quit Formula One.

Despite only being involved in the sport for ten years, Red Bull have become an integral part of Formula One in recent years.

As well as owning four-time Formula One world constructors champions Red Bull Racing, the company have previously sponsored Sauber, also own sister team Toro Rosso and this season one of the 19 races on the FIA Formula One calendar is the Red Bull owned Österreichring which will host the Austrian Grand Prix.

It’s fair to say that despite their infansy, Red Bull wield a lot of influence in Formula One.

So Mateschitz declaring that Red Bull could withdraw from the sport in regards to ‘sportsmanship and political influence’ just days following his teams disqualification in Australia will set alarm bells ringing.

‘The question is not so much whether it makes economic sense but the reasons would be to do with sportsmanship, political influence, and so on.

‘In these issues there is a clear limit to what we can accept.’ Mateschitz told Austrian newspaper Kurier as quoted by the BBC.

Five hours after the chequered flag had flown, Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from the race.

The Australian had celebrated his first race for the team with a second place finish at his home Grand Prix.

Considering Red Bull issues during winter testing, it was somewhat of a fairytale ending for Ricciardo until the DQ.

Red Bull Racing were found to be in breach of Article 5.1.4 of the Formula 1 Technical Regulations, which states that, ‘Fuel mass flow must not exceed 100kg/h’.

The FIA had warned Red Bull twice after qualifying and five laps into the race to take the necessary steps to comply with the regulations, however Red Bull disputed the readings of FIA fuel flow meter and decided instead to use their own readings.

The team immediately announced their decision to appeal, which will be heard at the International Court of Appeal in Paris on April 14.

When pushed if the acceptable ‘limit’ had been exceeded following the decision in Australia he continued: ‘The team has lodged a protest. The fuel-flow sensor, which was given to the teams by the federation, gave divergent readings and it is inaccurate. We can prove the exact amount of fuel flow and this was always within the limits.’

He also went on to sound his displeasure at the new era of Formula One in regards to fuel limits and the new turbo hybrid v6 engines.

‘You have to make F1 like it used to be – the top discipline of motorsports, F1 is not there to set new records in fuel consumption, nor to make it possible to have a whispered conversation during a race.

‘It is absurd to race a lap seconds slower than last year. GP2 partially provides more racing and fighting and almost equal lap times as F1 with a small fraction of the budget.’