Throwback: When Toto Wolff Vetoed Niki Lauda’s ‘Handshake’ Deal to Help Red Bull

Red Bull and Mercedes are sworn rivals in F1 today but there was a time when the two were close to joining hands, thanks to Niki Lauda. For Toto Wolff, however, this was a big no and he straight-up put an end to all talks.

Between 2010 and 2013, Red Bull dominated F1, winning four Consecutive Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships, led by Sebastian Vettel‘s brilliance. They had achieved this success thanks to the powerful Renault power units, but by the time the 2014 season had started, it started faltering.

Reliability issues and performance became a problem, and the once strong relationship between Renault and Red Bull took a hit. The Milton-Keynes-based outfit finished 296 points behind winners Mercedes that year, which prompted them to approach the Silver Arrows for their power units, which were the strongest on the grid.

Lauda, a three-time World Champion and one of the key figures behind Mercedes’ success, had no concerns with such a deal. The Race reported that there was a ‘handshake agreement’ between Lauda and Red Bull, but Wolff vetoed it.

“We are united with a flat no. But we had some discussions over the summer,” the Austrian Team Principal had said. Since Wolff is a 33% owner of Mercedes’ F1 team, his decision was final.

Red Bull’s troubles with finding an engine supplier

For Red Bull, Mercedes’ rejection turned out to be a problem. That’s because they had already told Renault that they wouldn’t continue with them after 2014.

It left the Austrian team scrambling for new partners, and they approached both Ferrari and Honda for the same. Ferrari had no problems with supplying engines to Red Bull, but only ones with a ‘year-old specification’, which Red Bull, of course, rejected.

McLaren Red Bull
Ditching Renault #F1 pic.twitter.com/3rTYni4HBa

— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) September 28, 2019

The problem with Honda lay in the fact that McLaren had an exclusive deal signed with the Japanese manufacturers, and the Woking-based outfit was not planning on letting them team up with Red Bull. Ultimately, Red Bull returned to Renault, humbled, and signed a costly deal to continue with the French manufacturer.

In fact, Red Bull relied on sponsors such as Tag Heuer to cover the cost of the engines supplied by Renault. They remained with Renault until the end of the 2018 season, after which Honda partnered with Red Bull.