Renault apologizes to Red Bull and Lotus

Sebastian Vettel was well ahead in the European Grand Prix at the Valencia circuit before the safety car came out following the collision between Heikki Kovalainen and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Shortly after, the German driver will be forced to park his Red Bull on the side of the track and abandon the race after his alternator gave up, apparently overheating after the neutralization period.

The same misadventure will happen to Romain Grosjean a few laps later, as he was fighting for first place with Fernando Alonso. Once again, it’s an alternator problem that will stop the French driver.

The engine manufacturer Renault was quickly held responsible for these two retirements; that is why Rémi Taffin, head of operations at Renault Sport F1, presents his apologies to both drivers and their respective teams: « We must apologize to both Red Bull and Lotus following the issues encountered with Sebastian’s and Romain’s cars. Both drivers suffered an alternator failure, although it seems the reasons for these failures were different. The alternator on Sebastian’s car overheated and caused the engine to stop, while Romain’s alternator simply stopped. Consequently, the entire electrical system of the engine shut down. We will, of course, conduct a thorough investigation into these failures once the parts are back at the factory, to ensure that Red Bull, Lotus, and all our other partners are no longer subject to this kind of problem. »

Renault is also concerned about the KERS issues encountered by Heikki Kovalainen at the wheel of his Caterham: « Likewise, we will work to try to understand the reasons why Heikki’s KERS did not function. There is a lot of work to be done before Silverstone, but our team is strong and has many resources. »

On his side, Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, stated that he was extremely frustrated by this retirement as Vettel was on track to easily win the Grand Prix: « Sometimes, motor racing is cruel. It’s frustrating because Sebastian was in fantastic form and had built up enough of a gap to pit without losing the lead of the race. He was matching the pace of Grosjean when the latter managed to pass Hamilton, and he really had the race under control. »

However, after the safety car came out, the Red Bull team anticipated such an outcome: « During the neutralization period, it became evident that we had a problem and we tried to manage it, but shortly after the restart, we suspected an issue with the alternator, very similar to what happened next to Romain Grosjean, which caused Sebastian’s retirement. It is extremely frustrating after being in such a strong position. »