• Renault

Renault admits to backwards step

© Sutton Images

Enlarge

Renault has admitted to making a backwards step with its 2015 engine and its managing director Cyril Abiteboul says his outfit needs to get back to some "basic common sense" to solve its issues.

Renault came under fire from its F1 partner Red Bull after suffering two engine failures over the Australian Grand Prix weekend, one on Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull and one on Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso. On top of that, all four drivers struggled with driveability problems and performance was significantly down on rivals Mercedes and Ferrari.

"The weekend has been very frustrating," Abiteboul said. "We know that we made genuine progress over the winter but we could not show it here and in fact we would even seem to have moved backwards.

"Given the pace at which we conducted our development programme towards the last few weeks of the winter, there may not be lots to change to be able to access these improvements. Now, we need to react, but not overreact, and get back to some basic common sense that has always driven our approach in all these years of F1 engine development.

"The season will be long, we have the time and the capacity to react and get this very bad start of the 2015 season behind us."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner vented his frustration.

"They need to have [a clear vision] and they need it quickly," Horner said. "You can see that Ferrari has made a step forward. Sauber - all respect to them - I doubt they have found that much from their chassis between last year and this year because most of it is the same - same front wing and rear wing. You can see that Ferrari has made a good step and Renault at this stage appear to have made a retrograde step."

Head of track operations Remi Taffin explained some of the issues Renault faces.

"Reliability has been below par, with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen suffering ICE [internal combustion engine] problems. The two are not related and we are already investigating a recovery programme to make sure we do not see a repeat. The biggest issue has been the driveability, which has made it hard for all the drivers to feel comfortable in the cars.

"It affects pedal application and confidence in the corners so has cost lap time and points this weekend. It's related to the maps, or the way the Power Unit is configured, so while it's definitely not an easy fix, it does not require a complete redesign. We have got a lot of work to do before Malaysia but equally a lot of motivation to not repeat the same issues we had this weekend."

Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.