Mercedes' senior management last weekend elected to turn down the prospect of a tie-up with Red Bull, which is evaluating its options ahead of an imminent split with Renault.

Although Red Bull is disappointed that its bid to secure F1's benchmark power unit did not come off, Marko says that it just means Mercedes will face greater pain if it is beaten by his team in the future.

"The talks with Mercedes came to an end even before we went into details," Marko told the Speedweek website in an interview published on Wednesday.

"There were specific requirements but we did not reach a point at which we would have been able to discuss them in detail. Now let's see what engine we will use.

"Perhaps we will be able to beat them (Mercedes) with the new package. Then it will be much more unpleasant than if we had managed to do that with a Mercedes engine."

Renault meeting

Marko has revealed that Red Bull and Renault's management are aiming to get together before the Singapore Grand Prix to discuss terminating their deal.

"We can say that there will be a meeting with Renault at Singapore or before that," he said. "It has not yet been decided when the meeting will take place.

"But at this meeting we will discuss all these matters and will try to bring about a solution."

When asked if that meant ending the contract at the end of this year or next, Marko said: "I can say more about that after our meeting."

Time pressure

With work on Red Bull's 2016 car having already started, Marko is aware that knowing which engine it will have is important, but not time critical just yet.

"No, because Red Bull Racing has very high technical standards," he said. "We are not under such big pressure as, for example, Toro Rosso is.

"This is because they are a much smaller team. But one thing is sure: The earlier we make a decision, the better it will be."

Although Ferrari now looks like Red Bull's only short-term option, Marko has suggested that other possibilities could open up in future years.

"For us this could be a first step to finally have a competitive engine again," he said about a Ferrari deal. "This way we would not be handicapped from the start.

"We will start to think what could happen after that only when we have a competitive engine again."