"Red Bull and Audi would be a fantastic partnership"

Gerhard Berger claims a partnership of Red Bull and Audi would represent their best chance to catch up with Mercedes as the drinks firm continue to battle with their current engine suppliers.

Audi have been rumoured to be joining the Formula One grid for a while now, with the only thing that appeared to stop them being Ferdinand Piech, former chairman of the Volkswagen group, owners of Audi. However with him leaving the speculation regarding their introduction to F1 has intensified.

Now the former Ferrari and McLaren driver believes it’d prove a fruitful link-up for both sides: “I would say there is a lot of discussion and I also think it would be a fantastic relationship because we still see a very competitive Red Bull team which has won four world championships in the last years," Berger said.

The ten time race winner added: "On the other side, we have with Volkswagen a group that is a premium brand with technical resources that would be able to fight with Mercedes. Mercedes in the last two years has just put the game up three steps and Renault just didn’t invest. I doubt that they’re going to be able to catch up. But somebody like Volkswagen, fresh coming in, I think they would and I’m sure that would be a good story for Red Bull."

The idea of Audi joining F1 has been furiously denied by the German manufacturer, but with Berger being a close friend and former associate of Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz. The Austrian was the first ever sportsman to be sponsored by the energy drink giant in the 1980's and they also both owned Red Bull’s junior outfit Toro Rosso from 2006 to 2008.

Audi have a rich motorsport pedigree, such as the dominating Audi Quattro in the Group B rally era, their stranglehold on Le Mans in the last decade or so, and also Matthias Ekstrom's dominance of the DTM championship in an Audi, ironically sporting Red Bull sponsoring. However Formula One is one avenue the German car makers have never attempted.

The speculation regarding a change of engine comes after Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko suggested that Mateschitz may consider pulling the team out of the sport if the results don’t pick up. This then sparked a war of words between Red Bull and Renault, however things now appear to have simmered down, but with Audi being linked again, could this season be the end for Red Bull-Renault?