F1 News: Red Bull's Christian Horner continues feud with Renault

Red Bull had engine trouble throughout the season.
Red Bull had engine trouble throughout the season.

What's the story?

Red Bull Racing F1 chief Christian Horner has once again attacked former engine partner Renault, saying that the engine maker showed a "lack of commitment" which resulted in Red Bull falling behind Mercedes and Ferrari in the 2018 F1 season.

In case you didn't know...

The 2018 season was one which proved to be a major disappointment for Red Bull Racing as they finished 3rd in the Constructors championship more than 200 points behind winners, Mercedes.

Red Bull have mostly been let down by unreliable Renault engines in the 2018 season, with Daniel Ricciardo - who incidentally is moving to Renault next year - retiring on 8 occasions in the 2018 season.

The heart of the matter

Red Bull were unhappy with Renault's engine throughout the season, with Max Verstappen even going on an incredible rant during the Hungarian Grand Prix when the Renault engine gave up on him.

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In an interview with Motorsport.com, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has now stated that the Renault technicians in their garage worked hard to get the best out of the engine, but they weren't backed by the Renault team.

"I have total admiration for the Renault guys in the garage that are working their socks off, week in, week out. But I think they've ultimately been let down by the main house's lack of commitment to development and reliability."

Horner revealed that the team were short on spare parts and had to borrow from other engines during the course of the season: "I think too often you see parts being taken from one engine to go onto another. That's been too much of a theme over the whole hybrid era, and that must compromise dyno time, that must compromise endurance running, and so on."

But Horner did praise the Renault engines for the races in Mexico, Austria and China: "In Mexico we were provided with an engine that was capable of winning, as we were in Austria and China."

What's next?

Red Bull will partner with Honda next year, who themselves haven't gotten the best out of their engines behind the Mclaren last year, but did work well behind Red Bull's sister team, Toro Rosso.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram