Toto Wolff’s claims that Red Bull have already lost the strategic battle as far as fuel consumption is concerned, opting for a different fuel(Exxon Mobil) than their engine supplier(Renault uses BP Castrol).
Wolff feels that the using a different fuel than your engine supplier results in decreased performance.
“ExxonMobil is capable of making a state of the art fuel, or BP/Castrol, or any of the top players. The strategic mistake is to opt for the commercial deal rather than making sure you are on the same specification of fuel and oil as the works team.
“We’re all using the same fuels, because we’re calibrating our engines on one spec of fuel.” said Wolff.
Also said: Toto Wolff feels Red Bull have made a huge strategic blunder
Red Bull though see it as an advantage, with Horner giving us an insight into how the ‘fuel difference’ could actually work in Red Bull’s favour.
“I see Toto has been making a load of comments on this,” said Horner in an interview with Sky Sports.
“We see it as an advantage. We have a great relationship with Exxon and have done for the last 12 months.
“They are producing some great products and we see it as a technical advantage. Their products won three grands prix last year. Obviously there are additional burdens involved in that as it’s a different supplier than what the works team have, it just means they’ve got to run more engines on the dynos which we have to cover the cost for.
“But we wouldn’t be using it if we didn’t see it as a technical advantage. They are a great company, great to respond, very quick and we see it as an advantage” Horner said.
If the testing is anything to go by, Red Bull’s strategy is working as of now, but what is good and what is bad will be for everyone to see on the 24th, when Red Bull gets onto the track during the Australian Open qualifying.
