Abiteboul: Red Bull have only themselves to blame

Red Bull boss Christian Horner and his driver Max Verstappen were quick to lambast Renault after a sixth power unit related failure during a race, this time the Hungarian Grand Prix where the young Dutchman was forced to park his powerless car at the side of the track with a mere five laps completed.

Verstappen’s immediate reaction, an expletive-packed rant at the French engine supplier, grabbed headlines in the wake of an incident-packed race at Hungaroring.

Horner was interviewed live by Sky as Verstappen’s powerless car coasted to halt beside the track, “I am not going to get drawn into saying too much, but we pay multi-millions of pounds for these engines, for a first-class product, a state-of-the-art product, and you can see it is quite clearly some way below that.”

“So it is frustrating, that is what it is. I will let Cyril come up with his excuses afterwards,” taunted Horner.

And in due course, the excuses were quick to emerge, as Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul lay the blame firmly with the energy drinks outfit when he told reporters, “We switched at Monaco to an improved MGU-K. But Red Bull is not using it because it affects the way the power unit is packaged on their car.”

“The new MGU-K manages and contains the temperatures more effectively. There were no problems with our cars, but we cannot force Red Bull to go with it. It’s their decision,” insisted Abiteboul.

Red Bull will terminate their fractious partnership with Renault at the end of the season to be powered by Honda but, between then and now, the animosity between the two parties is likely to increase if the weekend in Hungary is anything to go by.