Red Bull owner Mateschitz says F1 is not racing anymore

Amid a fresh debate about the impact that Pirelli's more aggressive rubber for 2013 is having on the world championship battle, Mateschitz has expressed his frustration that Red Bull is being hindered by high-degrading tyres.

Mateschitz witnessed world championship leader Sebastian Vettel struggle home in fourth place as the top Red Bull car in the Spanish Grand Prix, unable to do anything about the Ferrari and Lotus cars ahead of him.

AUTOSPORT understands that Mateschitz voiced his concerns in a private 45-minute meeting with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Sunday night, and he later claimed that Pirelli had gone too far with its products.

"Everyone knows what happens here", he told AUTOSPORT. "This has nothing to do with racing anymore. This is a competition in tyre management.

"Real car racing looks different. Under the given circumstances, we can neither get the best out of our car nor our drivers.

"There is no more real qualifying and fighting for the pole, as everyone is just saving tyres for the race.

"If we would make the best of our car we would have to stop eight or ten times during a race, depending on the track."

Mateschitz accepts that Pirelli was asked to spice up the show with more pitstops, but thinks that it has now strayed away from that original mandate.

"Yes, it was the target to get more excitement into the races by more stops for tyre changes, but not that much," he said.

"This is now a different situation from the original intention."

Red Bull's mounting frustrations at the tyre situation were clear with team principal Christian Horner cancelling his regular media briefing on Sunday night.

The energy drinks firm's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko reckoned the tyre situation was now even prompting safety fears.

"Can you really demand from us that we have to tell our two top drivers all the time 'be careful, you have to save your tyres'?" said Marko.

"We have to change our set-up that way that the tyres just get along with it. I wonder when tyre failures will result in severe accidents.

"We are at risk this will happen. We only can inform Pirelli about this."

Pirelli admitted on Sunday night that Barcelona's four-stop race had been a step too far and that it was considering changing the tyres in time for the British Grand Prix.