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Red Bull may seek engines from Ferrari after Mercedes snub

Red Bull and Renault's fractured relationship is pushing the Austrian F1 team to find a new engine provider. But after a trip across the German border to chat with Mercedes-Benz proved fruitless, the team is apparently set to head across its home country's southern border, and into Italy. Yep, Red Bull Ferrari could be a thing next season. According to RBR boss Christian Horner, the company is just doing "necessary due diligence" in contacting other engine suppliers, although he's willfully admitted to Germany's Bild newspaper that the "idea of Mercedes is finished," BBC Sport reports. It wasn't so much that Mercedes and Red Bull couldn't come to financial agreement – Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz views throwing money into F1 in much the same way you or I toss pennies into the mall fountain – but rather that the Germans had no interest in supplying the best engines on the grid to the factory team's perennial rival. BBC Sport seems to think that fact, along with what the outlet calls Red Bull's "antagonistic" relationship with engine suppliers, killed the Mercedes deal. Honda and RBR aren't likely to happen either, thanks to McLaren (not that we think Red Bull would approach the Japanese, which have struggled mightily all season long). By process of elimination, that just leaves Ferrari. Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene confirmed that his team can accommodate Red Bull's engine needs, and that he wasn't concerned with the idea of a Ferrari engine in an Adrian Newey-designed body. "In theory they have big names, with Newey as chief designer and it is easy to think that if you give them the engine they will build a scary chassis, which means they will be really competitive," Arrivabene told BBC Sport. "Concerning my team, my engineers and aerodynamicists know their own jobs. For that reason I don't have a problem, and competition is nice when you have a stronger competitor." "This doesn't mean tomorrow morning we will give our engines to Red Bull or Toro Rosso," Arrivabene added. And it's that statement we'd suggest remembering. There are, after all, still seven races left in the 2015 season, which is quite a lot of time for new and different developments within the sport's notoriously gruesome political process. In other words, don't count on an announcement from any team or manufacturer for at least a few more races. Related Video:

Lewis Hamilton takes pole as Mercedes speed stuns rivals

MELBOURNE, March 16 (Reuters) - Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton blazed to a record-extending eighth pole and sixth in succession at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday to lead Valtteri Bottas to a Mercedes sweep of the front row of the grid. Hamilton struggled with a brake problem during the frenetic final session at Albert Park but edged his Finnish team mate by 0.112 seconds with a searing second lap of one minute 20.486 seconds that set a record at the lakeside circuit. The one-two punch by Mercedes left Ferrari and their championship rivals stunned, with Hamilton's chief challenger Sebastian Vettel, who qualified third, more than seven-tenths of a second off the five-times champion's pace. "Oh man, I'm shaking it was so close out there," Briton 34-year-old Hamilton said after extending his pole record to 84 on a warm, sunny afternoon in Melbourne. "Coming from winter testing, we had no idea where we would be. We were hoping to be where we are ... Valtteri did an exceptional job out there, it was very close." Hamilton matched Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher for the record number of poles at a single race track. Senna took his eight at Imola, with Schumacher dominating the Suzuka circuit. Four-times champion Vettel, bidding for a third successive win at Albert Park, was separated from his new team mate Charles Leclerc by fourth placed Max Verstappen of Red Bull. It would have felt like 'deja vu' for Ferrari, having trailed Mercedes by nearly seven-tenths of a second in qualifying at last year's race. "Certainly Mercedes are the clear favorite," Vettel told reporters with a touch of resignation. "I'm certainly surprised (by their pace), I think everybody is, probably even themselves." "I think, there is still a bit of margin (to improve) but certainly the gap is there today, and it was a surprise," the four-times champion told reporters. "We didn't expect it coming here but now it is that way. ... Obviously there is a lack somewhere, because we are too slow – but didn't feel like it." German Vettel's new team mate Charles Leclerc qualified fifth fastest behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen but the highly regarded 21-year-old was harder on himself than the car. "I'm not happy with myself. I didn't do the job in Q3, which is a shame," said the Monegasque, who locked up in turn one of a "messy" second lap.

Chris Harris and David Coulthard wring out a Mercedes Fintail at the N"urburgring

If there's one thing we've learned from the latest video from Drive, it's that the combination of Chris Harris and David Coulthard will produce some very quotable moments. Take this exchange, for example.
DC: "We are by some way the slowest."
CH: "But we're in a class of three cars, apparently."