Marko rules out unilateral solution for Toro Rosso

More days have come and gone while Red Bull’s now urgent engine crisis remains unsolved.

Owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s end-of-October deadline is now looming large, with reports suggesting the Austrian billionaire has reverted to assuring the more than 1000 staff of the two teams that they will be given new jobs outside of F1.

"Maybe no news is good news," Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner said.

But The Times newspaper said Mateschitz has admitted that "only the future of his staff in Britain and Italy has prevented him from pulling the plug on F1 quicker".

However, while Red Bull Racing’s search for a new engine partner has been utterly fruitless, there are more positive signs from the junior outfit Toro Rosso, who seem ready to do a deal with Ferrari for a 2015-spec power unit.

But Dr Helmut Marko has ruled that out, insisting that if Red Bull Racing is left empty-handed, Toro Rosso will also be pulled out of the sport.

"I am unaware of Herr (Franz) Tost’s ideas, but it is clear that there can be only one holistic solution for Red Bull and Toro Rosso," the Austrian told Auto Motor und Sport.

Marko said he is not willing to estimate the chances that a solution can be found in percentage terms, revealing only: "We’ve been close a few times, but then nothing happened of it."

As for Bernie Ecclestone’s confidant prediction that Red Bull and Toro Rosso will definitely line up on the 2016 grid, Marko presumed that was merely "Bernie’s words in God’s ear".