Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne is open to the idea of a partnership with Red Bull but says it cannot involve supplying it with the same engines as the works team.
Red Bull is yet to secure an engine for 2016, with Mercedes and Ferrari turning down the Milton Keynes team and McLaren blocking Honda from a supply deal. Red Bull initially demanded engine parity with Ferrari but, like Mercedes, the Italian team was not willing to supply one of its biggest rivals with an equal power unit next season.
Despite this, Marchionne has revealed he would be happy to start a technical programme with Red Bull that would allow it to pursue a unique power unit development path.
"The possibility of collaborating with Red Bull regarding the development of the power unit is still a valid option, I continue to re-affirm that," Marchionne is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. "But it will not be in the context of Ferrari providing Red Bull with an equivalent engine to the one used by Ferrari in the races.
"The company is available to provide engineering and production services for an engine in a separate project for Red Bull, where Ferrari can commit to provide all its best in terms of engineering and give the chance to Red Bull and other manufacturers to have these engines. But they cannot be the same Ferrari engines that race on our cars."
Marchionne has spoken to both Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and motorsport advisor Helmut Marko about the proposal.
"I told this to Mateschitz and also to Marko. My dream is not to beat Mercedes. My dream is making Ferrari what it's capable of being. It is sharing the essential things that are part of our DNA, but creating what would be a fictitious competition is foolish. Ferrari are able to put their engineering abilities at the disposal of others."