Tag Archives: Red Bull Racing

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says he has no regrets about criticising Renault this season – and admits that in part he was trying to send a message to the French company’s board and its CEO Carlos Ghosn.

In effect Horner, who has harboured doubts about Renault’s commitment, wanted to give the management a wake-up call.

“The Renault board are quite distant from what is going on,” said Horner when asked by this writer. “It is not like Dieter Zetsche, who attends quite a few races, or Sergio Marchionne, and so I guess part of being vocal was also to get those messages back to the Renault board, that there are some issues here, and they need to be resolved.

“I think that things were said ultimately on both sides – of course it is never good to conduct your business in public, but it was really born out of frustration more than anything else.”

However Horner insisted that he had no regrets about going public, and says it didn’t have a negative impact: “It is very easy for others to pick up and use whatever excuse is convenient. What you have to remember is, this is a competitive business. As far as I am concerned, I have only ever told you the truth.

“When I have been asked a question, I have given you an answer, and if you look at actually what I have said, I don’t think there is anything particularly unfair in the comments that have been made. I think inevitably it’s been born out of frustration, comments that either Dietrich, or Adrian, or Helmut have made.”

Horner admits to being frustrated when Renault opted not to accept technical input from Ilmor’s Mario Illien that had been arranged by Red Bull, a decision that has now been reversed for 2016.

“Renault went through some management changes towards the end of last year, and there was an awful lot of talk going on. We introduced Mario Illien to them, there was resistance to use Mario initially, we created an engine group to support, there was not the smoothest of relationships between Milton Keynes and Viry, and out of that, obviously grew frustration.

“I think there was always a reluctance to fully embrace Red Bull as a technical partner, and there was a difference of opinion technically on where the weaknesses of the engine were. We couldn’t influence the technical direction of the development. 

“Mario developed a concept for Renault, and Renault in parallel ran their own project, and the outcome of which was the D-spec. And I never felt that Renault fully embraced the technical capability and simulation capability that we tried to offer. It was very clear early on that Renault weren’t happy being just a supplier. From the back end of last year they have been looking at becoming an entrant again.”

Horner denies that Red Bull pushed Renault too hard: “I don’t think so. I think that they are quite an established and conservative organisation, and of course our DNA is that we want to push, we want to get on, we want to make progress.

“And obviously a lot of promises were made over the last quarter of the year, and the closed season of 2014 into 2015, so inevitably expectation rose. And it was frustrating to see us further away, and in fact behind where we finished the season in 2014, going into the beginning of 2015.”

He admits that Renault’s inherently conservative approach has held the company back.

“I think in some respects, it possibly has. It is good to hear that they are looking at a bit of a restructure.”

Meanwhile he says that another side effect of Renault’s winter problems was that issues with the chassis were not immediately apparent, although later the team was able to get on top of them.

“I think with regard to the engine, we were running old specification engines through the winter, and we had quite a lot of issues, reliability and so on, and particularly driveability, that was masking quite a lot of the chassis issues.

“The front wing changes and nose changes over the winter actually seemed to affect us more than others, but they were a little bit masked early on by the major issues that we were having with the driveability. It was only once that started to improve that we could see – hang on, we’ve got some things that need tidying up, which the team quickly got on top of.”

Red Bull continues to search for an engine deal for 2016 as the weeks tick away to the start of next season.

The team has had talks with Honda, who agreed with the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone that they have to supply two teams in its second season. However McLaren has a right of veto over any choice of team.

“At the moment we are right on the limit to be at the first test,” said team boss Christian Horner. “The team in Milton Keynes have demonstrated their ability to work to massively tight deadlines and I am sure we will be able to meet whatever targets we need to as long as we come to a decision in the next couple of weeks.

“We are working hard to find a solution and behind the scenes there is an awful lot going on to try to achieve that – certain obstacles are being placed in our way, when the time is right we will sit down with all you guys to say what we are doing.

“We have a great team, we have worked really hard to build this team and I am determined that we will be here next year but we need to have a strong and bright future as well. This team is too strong to go: that has worked against us because the team is so strong.”

It looks increasingly likely that Red Bull’s only option could be to stick with Renault, possibly doing a deal to use the engine without branding. However Horner is still talking to Honda.

“Honda are very keen, but unfortunately they have a contractual status that is between them and McLaren, it is nothing to do with us. It is for them to decide among themselves what they want to do.

“I haven’t spoken to anybody from McLaren other than Ron Dennis who is the one guy who has the right of say there. And his views were quite clear.”

He said Red Bull would not be involved in any legal challenge from the FIA or FOM regarding McLaren’s veto.

“We will not get involved. Bernie and Jean Todt have made their positions clear regarding the situation, we rely on them to deal with that. That is a discussion between those two parties.”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that Renault will not introduce any power unit performance upgrades before October’s Russian GP in Sochi.

That means the RBR and Toro Rosso drivers will have to get through Spa, Monza, Singapore and Suzuka before they see any improvement in the engine’s performance.

Renault still has 12 in-season development tokens, and the company is expected to use them to produce a revised V6 and turbo – but which will now be available only for the final five races of the season.

“I don’t think anything is scheduled now before Sochi,” said Horner today. “That probably is the earliest that we’re going to see any development or use of the tokens. The engines that we’ve got at the moment are what we’re having to live with for the time being.”

The extra problem for Daniel Ricciardo is that after a failure today he only has one usable V6 to use. If he needs another one before Sochi he will take a grid penalty and will also be stuck with the current spec – unless he takes a further penalty in Russia or beyond in order to get the upgraded engine.

Horner explained: “Engines four and five are what the drivers have been using between Friday and Sunday racing. Unfortunately Ricciardo has now lost engine four, so he’s only got engine five that came into service for the first time in Austria to get him through the next few races. Only time will tell as to whether we can get to Sochi or not without incurring another penalty before introducing an upgraded unit.”

Horner insisted that Red Bull would still be with Renault next year.

“Renault would be the first to admit that they are not at all happy with where performance and reliabilty has been with this engine. They are making progress, they are making strides. The problem with engines is that unlike the chassis they are long lead time items. Renault have got strategically some decisions to take over the coming weeks in terms of the direction they want to go, not just for 2016 but beyond that.

“We have an agreement with Renault to the end of next year, and of course as a partner we’re expecting them to enable us to run in a competitive manner. In order to do that we need a competitive engine. Of course Renault need that more than anybody as well for both their customer teams.”

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says he’s open to the idea of two types of engine competing in F1 from 2017.

Bernie Ecclestone wants to introduce a cheaper engine for the struggling midfield teams – potentially a V8 or twin-turbo V6, in either case with KERS – which would race alongside the current hybrid V6s.

Intriguingly, if the idea gains support it could open the door for Renault to make a version of such an engine. Given the ongoing problems with the Renault hybrid V6 that could potentially give Red Bull Racing an alternative future path, and a chance to level the playing field, depending on how the FIA manages parity between the two types of engines.

“It’s an interesting concept,” Horner told this writer. “We ought to have a good look at it and explore the pros and cons, to be honest with you. It’s happened before, and you might get certain engines competitive at different tracks, and it might move things around a bit. It’s certainly worth a good debate.

“It’s certainly interesting. I would think Renault would certainly consider it – it’s more of a question for Renault than it is for me. But I would have thought they would certainly consider it.”

The biggest challenge is how the FIA would ensure that there’s far competition between the two types.

“There are all kinds of permutations that clever engineers can come up with, but first of all let’s have a look at the concept. These days simulation is very accurate, we can simulate what the outcome could be, and then decisions could be made on an informed basis rather than guessing.”

Asked what the odds were on F1 ending up with two engine specs in the future Horner said: “No idea. Ask me in a month…”

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that Daniil Kvyat’s drive to ninth place in Bahrain will serve as a big boost for the Russian, who has had a difficult start to his first season with RBR.

Although Kvyat earned the same result in Malaysia this time he has to fight his way up from 17th after a troubled qualifying session.

“I think both drivers did a good job, they got everything they could out of it,” Horner told this writer. “The recovery Dany had from 17th was pretty good really. He drove a good race in Malaysia, but he’s had the lion’s share of bad luck. If anything’s gone wrong it’s tended to happen with him.

“It’s good for his confidence, a race like that. He just needs a clean weekend really, and the potential’s there. Then you’ll see him just get stronger and stronger.”