Red Bull's 2016 engine situation appears to have taken a turn for the worse over the Russian Grand Prix weekend as negotiations with Ferrari are reported to be on the brink of collapsing.
A report in Auto Motor und Sport states that Ferrari does not want to supply Red Bull with either either up-to-date or year-old engines, seemingly leaving the former four-times world champions without a power unit for next year. The report adds that Ferrari is worried supplying one of its main rivals could damage its own chances of securing titles in the future, but says Maranello is willing to supply Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso.
Mercedes and Honda have already ruled themselves out of an engine deal with Red Bull in 2016, leaving a continuation with Renault or an 11th-hour deal with Ferrari as the only options. On the face of it, a Renault deal would appear unlikely following the in-fighting between the two and their moves to break ties at the end of the season. It would also depend on the French manufacturer's own plans as it attempts to set up a works team from the struggling Lotus outfit.
In Japan, Ferrari's head of trackside operations Luigi Frabroni said he thought it would be possible from a technical point of view to supply two more teams next year on top of the supply deals for the Ferrari works team, new Haas team and existing customer Sauber. But two weeks later, doubts over Ferrari's ability to supply five teams next year are starting to surface as Maranello toughens its stance in the negotiations.
Despite the rumours and counter rumours, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone insists a deal will be sorted and Red Bull will stay, but the details remain vague.
"Everything's been sorted out so I wouldn't worry about it," Ecclestone told reporters. "We don't want them to drop out. I think they have sorted it all out now,"
One option could be for Red Bull and Toro Rosso to run 2015 Ferrari engines next year, but Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz has repeatedly warned his teams will leave the sport if a competitive engine deal cannot be struck. However, speaking on Friday morning, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said options were still open at this stage.
"There's a lot of speculation at the moment but when there's something official to say we will tell you," he told Sky Sports. "There's a lot of discussion going on at the moment so I'm not going to conduct our negotiations through you guys [in the media]. Nothing is fixed, everything is open."