Marko remains optimistic about engine freeze vote

Red Bull Racing is anxiously waiting to see whether engine development will be frozen from 2022. The vote for this rule has been pushed back to 21 February, but Helmut Marko is optimistic about the chances.

Freezing of the engines

Because Honda are withdrawing from Formula 1, Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri have a problem. Red Bull's teams will no longer have an engine from 2022 onwards. Red Bull would like to take over the engine from Honda and produce it, but not further develop it. Red Bull has therefore asked for the planned freeze on engine development in 2023 to be brought forward by one year.

However, that is not so easy. Each team in Formula 1 has its own interests and Ferrari and Renault would not be eager to help Red Bull with this. That the rule will be implemented seems as good as certain, because Formula 1 cannot cope with the loss of two F1 teams.

Marko remains confident

It does seem, however, that the other teams are doing everything they can to postpone the decision for as long as possible. While the first talks were held back in January, the vote was already postponed to 11 February. According to F1-insider.com the vote has now been postponed even further, and Red Bull will have to wait until February 21.

However, Helmut Marko is optimistic, that the rule will come into force. ''We need six out of ten votes, so only a simple majority. I assume that apart from Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the three Ferrari teams (Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Haas) and also Renault will agree," said Marko, who surprisingly does not mention Mercedes, even though they have openly indicated their support for Red Bull.