Austrian Grand Prix: Red Bull criticize Renault after Sebastian Vettel's retirement from the race

Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has once again criticised team’s engine supplier Renault, labelling their performance as ‘unacceptable’.

Renault’s V8 unit was considered as the most driveable of all, but a change in engine regulations in 2014 has put Renault and their partners on the back foot. In Red Bull’s home turf Austria, Sebastian Vettel lost power on the second lap of the race, putting him at the back of the grid. While he was able to regain full power, it was too late, and the Austrian team eventually retired him from the race to save mileage. In the light of this ‘frustrating’ issue, Christian Horner insists Renault to make further changes that will ensure a podium finish.

"It's frustrating that we're in the situation that we are,’’ Horner said. “ We've obviously had a lot of success with Renault. We've won all the races and all the championships that we've achieved with Renault power, but the situation just isn't improving at the moment.”

"The reliability is unacceptable, the performance is unacceptable and there needs to be a change at Renault. It can't continue like this. It's not good for Renault and it's not good for Red Bull. We need to work together as partners and there will not be another engine in the back of the car next year, but we want to be competitive and we want to run at the front, so these kinds of issues cannot and should not happen.”

He added that the French company must also get their 2015 engine right as Red Bull can’t afford to have another year like this. "They've got issues with reliability as well as performance. There are certain things that still can be done this year. The most important thing is really to get next year right as well now."

Rob White, deputy managing director of Renault’s F1 programme, brought to light the improvements made since pre-season testing and is confident that they will be able to achieve certain pre-determined objectives.

"Next thing, is that we are completely committed to making progress as fast as we possibly can and I think we have shown signs of progress before now and we remain sure of where the expectations of Red Bull and Christian lies. We know what is expected of us and individually and collectively we must buckle down in the right direction,” White explained. "Of course, it is always difficult in the heat after a poor result and it is particularly tricky in this instance as I speak to you. I have extremely limited knowledge of the incident during the race, we will give some feedback on that as soon as we have some, for the time being we must continue in the direction of fixing each incident as we understand it and progressing with the development path that we have established with Red Bull. This is a process that is completely shared with Red Bull, and objectives are known and understood.