Red Bull believes it 'spooked' F1 rivals into refusing engine deals

Senior Red Bull figures and Bernie Ecclestone accused the team's manufacturer rivals of ruling out supplying Horner's team with engines through fear of how competitive it would be.

Horner reckons such reluctance was understandable but given Red Bull was on the brink of leaving F1 he feels its peers should have been more open.

"You can understand why Mercedes and Ferrari wouldn't be particularly keen to give their biggest asset to a competitive rival team," he said.

"But this is why the rules need looking at because it can't be right that a group of manufacturers can get together and say we're happy to see Red Bull go to the wall."

He believes more doors were closed to Red Bull as its cars became more competitive later in the 2015 season.

"Our performance in the middle sector at Spa seemed to spook a few people, around the time that we were discussing with Mercedes," he said.

"And our performance in Singapore seemed to totally spook Ferrari.

"In some ways, you're a victim of your own success but you've just got to keep fighting and solutions will present themselves."

Horner argued Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz's threats to quit F1 were prompted by feeling personally affronted by how other teams conducted themselves.

"There's an awful lot more to it than meets the eye," he said.

"In the summer there were a lot of discussions; there were agreements between individuals that were later reneged upon and an awful lot of politics.

"He was involved in the negotiation at the forefront of it and believed he had a deal and Dietrich's always worked on handshake politics.

"That's the way he's run his business and run his life."

The collapse of the potential Red Bull-Mercedes deal, for which Horner blames Toto Wolff, was a key morale blow.

"Niki Lauda tried his hardest to make it happen and unfortunately Toto was particularly un-keen to see Mercedes power in the back of a Red Bull car," Horner said.

"Dietrich became fairly disillusioned with Formula 1, understandably so.

"Deals that he believed were in place that were reneged on and inevitably he was pretty upset and pissed off.

"When you look at what he's invested in the sport in two grand prix teams, the circuit, all the young driver programmes...

"I think at one point he felt that he was being forced out, and if people didn't want Red Bull to be in Formula 1, why should he be there and commit the funding that the group does?"