Red Bull uses McLaren alternators for its Renault engine

In 2012, the end of the season for the Red Bull team was marked by both a series of top-tier performances, putting Sebastian Vettel back at the top of the world championship, and by tension and apprehension at each outing of the RB8 due to the various failures experienced by the Renault engine, particularly with the alternators.

Thus, the part used by the French engine manufacturer and made by the Italian firm Magneti Marelli was experiencing a recurring bearing issue that caused it to malfunction. The problem first appeared in Valencia, simultaneously affecting Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean, who was also using the Renault engine in his Lotus. It struck again at Monza, affecting the then double-world champion. Deemed safer, the 2011 version of the part was installed on the Red Bull engines, but a new failure hit Mark Webber, this time in Austin.

A series of problems that seem to have dangerously tested the patience of the leaders of the Red Bull team since, in the middle of last week, the Italian press relayed information that Magneti Marelli no longer supplied this part to Renault Sport for Red Bull, putting this change into perspective with statements made by Dietrich Mateschitz last September: « I want Renault to part ways with its supplier Magneti Marelli and turn to someone else. »

A wish that has evidently been granted since Renault confirmed to our colleagues at F1technical.net that a new alternator supplier has been in place for some time for the Milton Keynes team. The engine manufacturer from Viry-Chatillon indicated that it was, in fact, a system branded McLaren. This system is only present on the Red Bull because, as for Lotus, Williams, and Caterham, the alternators are still manufactured by Magneti Marelli.

Rob White, the technical director of Renault Sport, states that the organization worked on this issue very early on: « We were experiencing unacceptable recurring reliability problems with the alternators equipped on the RS27-2012 engines that we provided to all teams. At Renault, we took full responsibility for the design and integration of the engine and auxiliary equipment supplied to our teams, including the alternator. We worked with the support of teams and suppliers to develop solutions to eradicate last year’s problems. Work was underway before the end of the 2012 season. It was completed during the winter and validation was carried out during pre-season tests. These solutions have been implemented on the alternators of all teams and we continue to monitor the situation closely. »

While we were addressing the reliability issues known in 2012 and after consulting our teams, we increased the energy capacity of our alternators. To manage technical and logistical risks, we worked with two suppliers for electromagnetic components to adapt these parts of the alternators to our specifications. Two different solutions are therefore in the hands of Renault, which can adapt to the varying requirements from one customer team to another: The alternators generate electrical energy based on the car’s electrical consumption and to maintain the battery charge. For reasons related to the chassis, the electrical energy requirements may vary from one car to another.

For the moment, no reliability issue related to an alternator has affected a Renault engine since the beginning of the 2013 season.