Red Bull promised equality by Renault

Red Bull will be powered by the French engines next year after agreeing to a deal to switch their Ferrari engine agreement to sister team Toro Rosso.

Renault's engine technical director Rob White has confirmed Red Bull will get the same power units used by the French team.

"For 2007, it's quite clear that supplying an engine will go some way to compensate the activity due to the limitations on engine development, and some way to compensate for the amount we can learn through the limitations on testing," said White during a dinner with Autosport magazine, the full transcript of which can be read in this week's autosport.com journal.

"Once the decision was made to do it, it's up to us to do the job well, and we will do the best possible job for Red Bull. We will supply the same engines we supply our own team."

White added: "The engine will be good. One of the lighter moments of the whole thing was going to Red Bull for the first time, and it's symptomatic of Formula One that there are a lot of familiar faces, and there were very few people around that didn't know one another.

"A lot of key people there are from Renault, and there are still some people there that I know from Jaguar days - it's a lot less green than it used to be. And a lot less tartan than it was before that."

Despite the engine deal coming late in the year, White believes Red Bull will be able to minimize the problems associated with the delay.

"It's a feature of modern Formula One that engine decisions are taken too late to take in the mountain that the engine supplier has to climb," he said.

"Of course they have a clear strategy. I think that throughout the time we were discussing, it was important for Renault to supply its engines to Red Bull to find a solution to allow that choice to be made. Red Bull set out their stall to minimize their problems."

Apart from the championship-winning engine, Red Bull will have a car designed by Adrian Newey in 2007.

Renault's chassis technical director Bob Bell says the French manufacturer will enjoy the challenge of battling with the Austrian squad, despite using the engine supplied by them.

"I'm sure Adrian will make a strong car, but there's a lot more to winning races and the championship," said Bell. "The whole team is still relatively young, and there are a lot of operational and organizational aspects that have to develop, as well as just the performance of the car.

"But in the end I think it's a challenge we should relish."