Red Bull to rebrand Renault engines ‘Infiniti’
Infiniti, the Renault-linked Nissan's luxury division, is already the world champion team's title sponsor.
"Next year, (Infiniti) is paying the Renault engine bill and wants advertising in return," said German magazine Auto Motor und Sport's correspondent Michael Schmidt from Monaco on Friday.
Schmidt said Renault is therefore looking for a new premium partner to advertise with in F1, and the first choice is the former Renault works team, Enstone based Lotus.
The big problem, however, is Renault's highest-in-F1 quoted price for its customer engines, at about EUR 20 million or more.
Renault's competitors are offering lower prices, and so it is believed Williams has already decided to make the switch to Mercedes for 2014.
And Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez, and possibly also Caterham, are also "not prepared to meet Renault's demands", Schmidt claimed.
But Alain Prost, Renault's brand ambassador and a member of the executive committee, defended the French marque's pricing.
"The budget of Renault Sport F1 is EUR 150 million per year, and you can imagine that divided by four teams, for example, Renault is paying a big contribution," said the quadruple world champion.