Red Bull: Renault “30km/h” slower than Mercedes on the straight
Aware of the lag accumulated by both Red Bull and Renault, Helmut Marko explained that the Austrian team had chosen to support the French engine manufacturer, whose V6, according to him, lacks nearly 30 km/h compared to Mercedes'.
Victim of repeated problems, Red Bull has reportedly decided to take action and support Renault Sport F1, its engine supplier, according to statements made by Helmut Marko. This is revealed in an interview given to our German colleagues at Bild.
Somewhere, we will have to survive in Melbourne, admits the head of the Red Bull team, who estimates that the Renault engine gives up 30 km/h in a straight line to Mercedes, with Bild mentioning a deficit of nearly 165 horsepower between the two V6 Turbo engines.
An emergency situation that led Red Bull to dispatch a team to the Renault factory in Viry-Châtillon: « That’s why we sent a task force to France. Our employees just helped Renault write a new program for the software. »
Rémi Taffin, the director of track activities at Renault, sought to downplay the situation, believing it is far from irreversible: Yes, some problems still need to be understood. But over the last six years, approximately 95% of the parts of the V8 engine have been refined compared to the first version.
« We have made a big step forward between the first tests and today with the hybrid block. Yes, we are a bit behind schedule, we still have some issues, but they are being gradually resolved, » he explained.
For Daniel Ricciardo, who is driving the Red Bull during the first two days of the final winter testing session in Bahrain, the situation is clear: From the outside, it seems like we’re not doing many laps and the times aren’t good. But as a team, we are confident that we will be with the best. It’s hard to really predict what’s going to happen, but we can say that we won’t dominate in Melbourne as we did last season.
