Lewis Hamilton has warned his employers Mercedes-GP that it would be a mistake to supply rivals Red Bull Racing with engines if that team’s partnership with Renault comes to an end.
The possibility has been mooted if Renault withdraw from the sport or acquire Lotus as their favoured works team.
The French manufacturer is assessing its options, with a decision expected soon.
Red Bull won four successive drivers’ and constructors’ titles between 2010 and 2013, but despite having a strong aerodymanic package they have been unable to challenge Mercedes during the past 18 months, due to the lack of horsepower and reliability of the Renault engine.
“I think if we’re serious about winning world championships, probably not,” Hamilton, the double world champion, told Sky television at the Italian Grand Prix when asked whether it would be a wise move for Mercedes, whose power unit is currently dominant.
“Red Bull is a great team and it’s like giving Ferrari our engine,” added the Briton, 28 points clear in the championship, who was fastest in yesterday’s two practice sessions at Monza ahead of tomorrow’s 12th grand prix of the season.
“We’re here to win so we don’t really need it. There’s no financial benefit really in it, so I think we’re good where we are.”
Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff was more pragmatic.
“From a team perspective you have to have a no-prisoners approach and look in an opportunistic approach,” the Austrian said. “It’s also a matter of what we can do to make F1 function.”
The Williams team, who have Mercedes engines and are third and ahead of Red Bull in the championship, also voiced opposition to any deal that gave their nearest and better-funded rivals an advantage.
“How do I feel about it? Not great, to be honest,” deputy principal Claire Williams said when asked about the prospect of Red Bull racing with Mercedes power. “It doesn’t fill me with much joy.
“At the moment obviously we are ahead of Red Bull, but Red Bull are never going to be down for too long and we need to make sure if they do get an engine, then fair enough and we have to deal with it.
“But that is a conversation between Red Bull and Mercedes that we have no influence on whatsoever. We therefore will just have to produce a better chassis ... I don’t believe a Red Bull powered by Mercedes would absolutely jump ahead of us.”
Williams said they had no preferential terms with Mercedes, who treated all their customer teams with parity.
Williams suffered an embarrassing incident at last month’s Belgian Grand Prix when a blunder at Valtteri Bottas’s first pit stop saw him sent out with three soft tyres and one hard tyre – against the rules in F1 – which led to a drive-through pitlane penalty that wrecked his hopes of a podium finish.
Williams blamed the incident on a new procedure the team had introduced but said they would not abandon it at Monza.
“We’d changed the way we laid our tyres out,” Williams said.
“Normally we had a vertical structure and then we changed it to a horizontal one and we just weren’t prepared enough.
“We will stick with the new system. We’ve just got to practise it a bit more.”
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