Renault hits back at Red Bull fury
- Published on 01 Aug 2018 08:41
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- By: Jeroen Jonkers
Any niceties between Red Bull and Renault are now in the past.
The two parties are splitting at the end of the year, with Red Bull moving to works Honda power.
But tempers are fraying, as team boss Christian Horner and driver Max Verstappen unloaded fury on Renault following another technical problem in Hungary.
"I'll leave it to Cyril to give the excuses," Speed Week quotes Horner as saying.
But Cyril Abiteboul, the Renault team boss, did not hit back with an excuse, but rather a message of resignation about the fading Red Bull partnership.
"We haven't read what Christian Horner says about us since 2015," said the Frenchman.
"It's very clear that we have nothing to do with them anymore," he added.
"They have a new engine partner who pays a lot of money to get their product on board, and I wish them good luck. That's all I have to say," Abiteboul said.
As for Horner's complaints about the MGU-K unit, however, Abiteboul insists Red Bull has some blame as well.
"We switched to an improved MGU-K in Monaco," he revealed. "Red Bull does not use them because the installation of the car is different.
"But with the new MGU-K we have the temperatures much better under control and there were no problems in our cars. But we cannot force Red Bull to use it."
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Replies (6)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
"We switched to an improved MGU-K in Monaco," he revealed. "Red Bull does not use them because the installation of the car is different." Lame excuse! Last time I heard snything similarly poor was whennEA said Star Wars BF2 needed the lootboxes to survive... until they removed them and said it didnt affect their earnings.
HEINZ
Posts: 61
Very good excuse actually... Why didn't Christian talked about this new MGUK "issue" which was so conviniently kept secret? Oh, maybe because they chose Honda ;)
2GRX7
Posts: 108
Yeah, agree this is a very good excuse, and peering into the mind of Newey the Great, he wouldn't consider changing his aero (more AIR in = MORE DRAG) to suit the MGU-K unit and that Renault should have built it to suit the R.B. car from the very beginning!
R.B. simply need to understand that they're not the Works team anymore.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
@Heinz except this MGU-K issue was a known problem. Thats why Renault upgraded it twice so far, as Im sure you are aware.
@2GRX7 Except there is a limit to how you are allowed to change engine designs in F1 currently. Once a PU has been homologated, you have to ensure it retains some of the basic dimensions so as to ensure no situation like what Renault, RB and McLaren may or may not be in right now happens. Issuing an upgrade that your customers cannot get might break the rules regarding parity between works team and customers. And McLaren didnt get the new MGU-K either, meaning only works Renault has had it since Monaco, which is quite a while ago.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Renault have not been great for a long while, for sure they have driveability but they lack horsepower. All the improvements are heading straight to their Factory team. What happened to Toro Rosso shows that they are not afraid of pulling a few tricks in order to gain. Their improvements on that part of the PU have only been recent and unlike Ferrari all their customers have not gained massively when the factory PU improves.
The comment from Cyril is loaded perfectly however it's still the Renault unit giving up the ghost. Because of the reliablity issues with their unit they simply can not afford to replace this part without incurring penalties. It's not like Renault are not having issues either.
How many times have we seen Ricciardo or Verstappen by the sideline because of PU issues? Way too many times.
What it looks like now is that Renault are pulling the same kinda tricks with Redbull as they did with Toro Rosso last year. Not impressed with Renault at all.
2GRX7
Posts: 108
@CALLE.ITW TOTALLY hear what you'e saying. Here's where the nuances come into play. McLaren and R.B. CHOSE NOT TO USE the upgrade that was OFFERED by Renault!
There were bound to be MGU-K redesigns (as you stated) from Renault in order for them to catch up to the Merc/Ferrari. Merc/Ferrari units are already highly developed/efficient to where hardware improvements would be minimal compared to wide-ranging improvements Renault is needing to do to catch up.
If R.B./ McLaren felt that the hit to aero points was too much performance (which they most likely did) to give away for better reliability/efficiency of the MGU-K system, that was their choice. Renault did what was expected of them according to the rules. Personally, I do not like the Renault way, but their entitled to it.