Helmut Marko has revealed Red Bull were close to agreeing a deal to use Mercedes F1 engines - a move which was ultimately blocked by T⛄ot💝o Wolff.

At the start of the hybrid era in 2014, Red Bull were uncompetitive relat꧙ive to Mercedes, which dominated the first three seasons.

Red Bull’s performance was limited by tဣheir engine supp🎃lier, Renault.

In a bid to become more co💧mpetitive, Red Bull assessed alternative options in terms of power unit supply🐻.

Red Bull would ultimately remain wi🌃th Renault until the end of 2018 after neither Mercedes or Ferrari agreed to supply th💫em with engines.

Unsurprisingly, their rivals were conc🍰erned if they had the same power unit they’d beat them given the Red Bull chassis still tended to be compe♒titive.

Speaking on the podcast, Marko shared a story about Nik꧅i Lauda striking a deal with Red Bullꩲ before it was halted by Wolff.

“In 2014, when t🃏he new engine rule🌸s came in, our engine supplier, unfortunately, couldn't make a competitive engine," Marko said.

“There was quite a big rivalry with Mercedes, and also our boss [Mateschitz] was not a big fan. I said, 'Listen, with our engine, we can't motivate p👍eople anymore, because everybody knows with this engine you can't win'.

“So we had a 🎶deal with Mercedes, a handshake deal with Lauda, which was not supported by Tot꧑o, so the deal didn't happen."

Red Bull ultimately joined forces with Honda ꧅in 2019 after the Japanese manufacturer’s miserable partnership with McLaren ended two years ea🐈rlier.

Their decision to partner with 🌊Honda proved to be a fruitful one, returning to championship-winning ways in 2021.

“We went to H🐠꧑onda," added Marko. "Honda, at that stage, failed to be competitive with McLaren, but I had some inside information on what they were planning to do, so we said, 'Yes, we go ahead. We take this risk'.

“I believed it wasn't a risk because I knew ho🐈w much they had spent on dynos. They were serious about it."

“At that moment it was, how did [Fernando] Alonso say, F2 style or power, or somet༒hing like that, a brave decision. We always took brave decisions. So a little bit no risk, no fun.”