Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has suggested that teams could field three cars in Formula 1, if Red Bull and Toro Rosso carry out their threat to leave the sport.

Red Bull will split from engine supplier Renault after a difficult season, which has seen the four-time constructors' champions off the pace and involved in a public spat with the French company.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit has warned that it will quit F1 if they do not get a decent engine for 2016, but Wolff has claimed that the sport can cope.

He is quoted by F1i as saying: "Yes, if a team would leave, and we had this discussion about Lotus a while ago, third cars are a solution to fill up the grid.

"For me personally it is a pretty exciting idea. I'd rather have Red Bull in the sport than third cars and a grid of 27 or 28 cars, and some exciting young drivers in those cars, but this is definitely one of the fall-back solutions.

"It isn't the best of news if a brand and a team of the pedigree of Red Bull would leave the sport – that is absolutely clear and we are very conscious about it. It would harm the platform and there would be bad news around it. You know how much I have fought for the positive news around Formula One, so it isn't the best of news."

Volkswagen has been linked with a takeover of Red Bull in recent weeks.