Renault apologises to Red Bull and Lotus over alternator failure – Formula 1 news
The engine supplier Renault Sport has publicly apologised to Red Bull and Lotus after both cars faced retirements due to mechanical issues with the engines.
Both teams use Renault engines and both the drivers Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull and Romain Grosjean in the Lotus had an alternator failure which caused them to retire from the European Grand Prix.
Vettel was in the lead when his car failed on him. The German was so strong in the race that only a retirement would have taken the win from him. Vettel was frustrated at the result but said that nothing can be done what is done is done.
Grosjean was at second place fighting for the first place when his car also failed on him and the Frenchman had to retire. It was a sorry end to both the drivers races as they looked probable for top spots in the race.
Renault has found out that the issue was with the alternators of the cars and while Grosjean’s car went into neutral because of a technical failure of the alternator, Vettel’s overheated and turned off.
“We do need to hold our hands up and apologise to both Red Bull and Lotus on the problems on the sister cars of Sebastian and Romain,” Rémi Taffin, head of Renault Sport track operations, said. “Both suffered alternator failures, although it seems for different
reasons at this point in time. Sebastian's overheated and the engine shut down, while Romain's alternator failed and the electrical power to the engine stopped.”
“We will of course thoroughly investigate the reasons for this when we get the units back to Viry to try and ensure that Red Bull and Lotus, plus our other partners; do not have the same issue in the future,” he added.
He added that Renault will be looking into the issue with Heikki Kovalainen’s KERS failure. There is still sometime between now and Silverstone Grand Prix but there is a lot of work to be done in that time to make sure that everything goes according to plan
and teams do not suffer in the future races.
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