Toto Wol🃏ff says Formula 1 “should be doing everything” to help Red Bull continue to use Honda power units beyond the end of 2021, and says Mercedes would supp𝔉ort a possible engine freeze for the 2022 season.

Red Bull is currently evaluating how best to react to Honda’s shock decision to quit F1 from the end of next season, with♋ its preferred option to take on the Japanese manufacturer’s abandoned engine project.

But with concerns over a lack of technical and financial resources to takeover and develop Honda’s power unit project, Red Bull is pushing for a freeze on engine development from𒈔 2022 to enable it to maintain a works status.

Mercedes boss Wolff said Mercedes would be in favour of an engine freeze if it ensured that it kept Red Bull🌄 and its sister team AlphaTauri on the F1 grid, adding he can understand where Red Bull is coming from.

"I think For🦋mula 1 is iಌn a good state with three engine suppliers," Wolff said.

"I totally understand where Red Bull is coming from. They don't want to go back to a ꦬcustomer status.

"They want to be a wor🌺ks team and they have the capability of tweaking it and maybe optimising it, and maybe there are a few things in the pipeline from Honda that are giving them confidence that there is more performance in the engine.

"But I think we should be doing everything to give Red B༒ull that oppor🌱tunity.

“I think that for them going bꦦack to customers, that status is not something that they are very keen on,” Wolff added.

“I truly believe that Honda has done a very good job and I ꦑthink there is performance in the pipeline that gives Red Bull confi✅dence.

“🍷But equally I understand that they don’t 😼want to go into a spending war with all the other OEMs developing an engine, so it’s a sensible proposal I’d like to support it.

“I think Red Bull is a tremendously i𒉰mportant brand for Formula 1 and we should do and we should do everything to keep the two teams in Formula 1 and help them with🌸 the option of having basically works status.”

Asked if he༺ was concerned Red Bull is simply trying to force F1 to get its preferred outcome, Wolff replied: “Yeah they could be.

“I think in F🐠ormula 1 everybody’s trying to get the best fಌinancial deal and performance deal and this is their current position.

“I can live with either outcome. I can live with them taking a customer engine, o꧒r help to fund the Honda development progra♌mme, or do it on their own. I’m easy with either decision.”

Spea🅷king to Sky Sports, Red Bull team p❀rincipal Christian Horner stressed that the team's 'Plan-A' is its only real option for 2022. 

“Obviously we’ve got a lit💞tle bit of time,” he said. “We’ve got just under 18 mo♍nths to get ourselves sorted.

“But the more we look, there really only is one🥃 option that works and that would be to agree something with Honda where we could take on the [intellectual property] for the Honda engine.

“But of course that would have to be dependent on the regulations🀅. It would only make sense for an independent engine supplier, as Red Bull would effectively be, if there was a freeze because it would just be impossible to fund the kind of development spend that goes on with these🅺 engines.”