United States GP: Red Bull admit to Volkswagen talks

Christian Horner has been team principal of Red Bull since 2005

Red Bull have admitted for the first time that they held talks with the Volkswagen Group about a partnership in Formula 1.

The Austrian team's principal Christian Horner had previously denied there had been any discussion.

"It's publicly known there was discussion with the VW Group," he said.

But Horner added that fall-out from the diesel emissions scandal surrounding VW in the US meant "F1 is now probably the last thing on their mind".

Any VW entry into F1 was never planned to be before 2017 or 2018.

Red Bull currently have no engine partner for next season. Earlier this year, owner Dietrich Mateschitz said that he would pull his team out of F1 if they could not find a competitive engine.

But on Friday Horner said that quitting F1 "for me is not an option - I am working very hard to make sure the team is on the grid and competitive".

He said withdrawal from F1 was an option for Mateschitz but that the Austrian billionaire was "committed to finding a solution".

Red Bull had wanted to end their relationship with Renault and had come close to terminating their contract with the French company, which runs until the end of next season.

But Mercedes rejected Red Bull and talks with Ferrari have reached an impasse because the Italian team are not prepared to give Red Bull their 2016 engine.

Red Bull has since reopened talks with Renault and also approached Honda about a potential supply, despite the Japanese manufacturer's struggles with McLaren in its first season back in F1 this year.

The most likely solution is said by insiders to be that they will use a Renault engine badged with another name in 2016.