Two of the four Renault-powered Formula 1 cars did not make it to the finish of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai after having blown their V6 engines in spectacular fashion.
Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo finished in ninth position, and Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz saw the chequered flag in 14th position. Ricciardo’s teammate, Daniil Kvyat retired on lap 16 with an ICE (the 1.6-litre Internal Combustion Engine) failure. Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen looked set for 8th position but just two laps from the end stopped suddenly on the pit straight with an ICE problem. Additionally, the V6 engine in Ricciardo’s RB11 was changed after Saturday’s qualifying session.
“We had two unforeseen failures in the race. At the present time we believe Daniil [Kvyat] and Max [Verstappen] experienced the same problem with the ICE,” said Remi Taffin, director of operations at Renault Sport F1. “We ran a similar specification in the dyno and on track for several hundred miles without any issues, so we need to understand why. We have dyno tests planned for next week to come back to form in Bahrain. Cyril Abiteboul, managing director, added “Introducing new Power Units across cars earlier than expected unfortunately meant some issues from the first specification were carried over. It created another challenge to manage, but we believed we had them under control. We have already spoken with Red Bull and Toro Rosso and there’s not much more to say apart from we have to investigate the reasons for the failures and put in place countermeasures for 100% reliability as quickly as possible.”
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