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Abiteboul: Renault deserves credit for Red Bull success

Published on 02 May 2019 14:46
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By: Fergal Walsh

Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul says the Red Bull Formula 1 team "is what it is today" partly thanks to Renault.

The energy drink squad parted ways with Renault at the end of the 2018 season, after the relationship between the two deteriorated.

Red Bull and Renault enjoyed success together, winning four consecutive championships from 2010 to 2013.

When asked to address comments made by Adrian Newey about Red Bull increasing public criticism of Renault from 2015 to pressure it to improve or leave F1, Abiteboul told Autosport: "One thing we can give credit to Christian [Horner, Red Bull team principal] and Red Bull is that they are fantastic at communication strategy.

"Communication is part of this world, it's part of Formula 1, it's part of your strategy and your tactics.

"It's not the first team and it's not the last team to use all the weaponry of this world, and frankly you guys [the media], to influence what is going on.

"I was reading yesterday that Max [Verstappen] is happy to take an engine penalty. Amazing!

"That's part of this world, but I don't want to lose sight of the fact, and I would concur with Christian in relation to that, our engine was not at the required level in 2014 and 2015.

"There are mitigating circumstances. You know, we were extremely happy and Renault has contributed to making Red Bull what it is today by winning four championships in a row.

"From a financial perspective with sponsors, from a technology perspective with talent, recruitment, Red Bull is what it is today thanks also to Renault."

Horner described the thinking behind the the pressure tactics that Red Bull tried in the hope of seeing an improvement from Renault.

"We'd had several conversations, we'd been to Paris, we'd seen [former Renault CEO] Carlos Ghosn, we'd presented what our concerns were," said Horner.

"By 2015, when the engine was arguably worse than it was in '14, then frustration boiled over to the point that it was like, 'OK, if we are more open about what our frustrations are, maybe it will force a reaction'.

"Cyril came back into the full brunt of it. It was one of things that you try every mechanism that you can to try to generate competitiveness.

"At that time it was felt that maybe Renault couldn't possibly afford the embarrassment of these engines not being competitive and not being reliable and not delivering. Unfortunately it didn't work."

F1 News Christian Horner Cyril Abiteboul Renault Red Bull Racing

Replies (7)

Patentprutser

Posts: 392
Bring up the past. Sure thing but in the last 5 years they are fully off. Making promises they never kept. Off course Renault was a significant part of the RB succes. But you can’t keep leaning in that of you build engines that are ir-realible and far off pace.
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- May 2 2019 - 22:15
Biggs7

Posts: 38
Renault should thank RB for using their engine and putting them on the map the reason why I say that its because by then it wasn't all out engine power that dominated the race wins but the chassis or aerodynamics which of RB was good at. RB could chosen a Bmw engine and would have still succeeded. RB's chassis caused Renault to win championships not the other way around even though the two work hand and hand. Renault weakness was expose with the new engine regulations in 2014. Now RB is giving that opportunity to Honda and I hope they can put their act together and improve.
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- May 3 2019 - 16:17
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Fully agree, this is a point I've made a few times myself. Red Bull was never winning thanks to Renault. Earlier, in the V8 era, they were winning With Renault, even then Renault was still slightly behind the others in terms of power, but since the hybrid era when they've won, it's been despite of Renault rather than with them or thanks to them. As of present, it's kinda the same deal with Honda, even though Honda seem to have stepped it up a bit.
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  May 3 2019 - 20:17
- Ram Samartha
  
  Posts: 1,172
  Renault was winning long before RB came along.
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  May 3 2019 - 21:00
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Though they weren't really doing all that well post the V8 era. And since the discussion was more around the RB-Renault relation, that was were I put my focus, not on the main team itself.
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  May 4 2019 - 08:47
mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
Its done. Time to move on.
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- May 3 2019 - 17:03
- Biggs7
  
  Posts: 38
  The last time I remember Renault winning in my life time as a constructor team was 2005 & 2006 with Alonso. The earlier years is only history to me. RB kept their legacy alive right there and revived them. That's what McLaren is currently trying to do at the moment lifting up their reputation.
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  May 3 2019 - 22:14