Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul described the team’s double failure in the Bahrain Grand Prix as “frustrating and unacceptable”.
Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo retired within seconds of each other on the 54th lap of the race. The team also encountered problems with its power unit during practice, one of which prevented Hulkenberg from reaching Q2.Abiteboul admitted the team has made “a very bad start” to the season.
“Similar to Melbourne, our qualifying in Bahrain was massively compromised by minor electronics issues, which impacted both cars.
“Our race today came to a sudden stop so close to the finish. These are issues we have previously encountered but something we were unable to rectify in Bahrain.”
Both the team’s cars were running in the points when the race-ending failures struck. “These problems are increasingly frustrating and unacceptable as both cars have shown very good competitiveness both over one-lap and race runs,” said Abiteboul, who added the team must “react and shift our focus on reliability.”
The stewards took no action against Ricciardo for failing to replace the steering wheel on his RS19 after it broke down. The Energy Recovery System warning light on the car was showing red, indicating the car was not safe to touch.
“The team radioed the driver to shut down the power unit and electrical system, and to jump from the car. The driver was also instructed not to touch the car.
“The stewards note that this is the normal safety procedure in such circumstances to avoid potential electrocution. The driver felt it would be dangerous to try to replace the steering wheel in these circumstances.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2019 F1 season
- Crying in the Melbourne car park at 2019 grand prix was my career low – Ocon
- McLaren Racing reports reduced £71 million loss in 2019
- Kvyat: Hockenheim podium last year was “my biggest achievement” so far
- How the FIA’s new encrypted fuel flow meter targets Ferrari’s suspected ‘aliasing’ trick
- “He smashed my office door”: 23 must-see moments from ‘Drive to Survive’ season two
rudi (@rudi)
31st March 2019, 22:42
Is there any chance the Renaults could have been sabotaged from inside of outside the Team?
Kringle
1st April 2019, 0:06
No.
Have you ever owned a Renault?
It’s always the bloody electronics!
Robert Berry
1st April 2019, 20:30
Haha. Ain’t that the truth!
Daniel (@db01)
31st March 2019, 22:43
As an aside, it seems that Danny Ric is taking a little bit of time to adjust, Hulk has had the better of him so far.
Initially
1st April 2019, 6:50
This is the year Hulkenberg has to make count. His shot at proving himself.
Nick (@nick101)
1st April 2019, 7:23
Make no mistake, I’m a fan of the Hulk and look forward to him getting his first podium – but let’s not kid ourselves…Ric had the better of Hulk this race, only being let down by his ridiculous 1 stop strategy.
Aaditya (@neutronstar)
1st April 2019, 8:00
@nick101 Ricciardo also started 7 places ahead of Hulk. I don’t know if you can say that he had the better of his teammate, as there was a point when Hulk was less than 2 seconds behind Ricciardo (before everyone started pitting) despite starting so far back, and he was closing the gap. Also, I know Hulk had 7-8 laps fresher mediums (which is not a huge number anyway) when he overtook Ricciardo later on, the rate at which he closed the gap down to Ricciardo was like he was on fresh softs, and Ricciardo on old mediums, and the latter’s tyres should still have had decent life in them given the overtake took place about 15 laps before the end of the race.
Yes Ric’s strategy was poor, but it is also true that he is yet to settle in with the car. Similarly, I’d like to advise Hulkenberg fans to wait for a few more races before getting carried away with his form against Ricciardo, because as we saw last year, Sainz similarly struggled in the beginning of the season before picking himself up and finding his footing from Spain onwards. So far however, Hulkenberg has been definitively better than Daniel.
krxx
1st April 2019, 11:53
@neutronstar
Yeah, HUL was less than 2s behind RIC right before he pitted. That was bc of HULs megastart from 17th to 11th before the end of the 1st lap (helped by the STR-GRO chaos), while RIC ‘merely’ had a good start from 10th to 9th. The pace difference in HULs first stint isn’t up for a straightforward comparison though, bc they were only right behind each other for less than 4 laps before he pitted. HUL did chew away 1s away from the 3s lead of RIC in the 3L before the inlap, but that’s no clear indication he was truly faster bc they both presumably knew their strategies, so HUL could/should push those last laps, while RIC was on safe mode and I should add, his pace was fine.
Then the stops came and it became very clear very soon, that those softs were way off the pace. As usual, the predicted tyre strategies were the fastest and every tv viewer can see them. That’s why it’s baffling why REN decided a one-stopper for RIC. HUL pitted in L12, RIC in L24. The predicted strategies had drivers coming in for the 1st time in L8-18. RIC was losing massively from L15 onwards, so they should’ve stopped him tops in L14. That’s ruining your highly paid driver’s race and points, and for what? A thing that did cross my mind while I was watching how he was virtually losing a lot of places, was that this was some kind of test run, to compare how the cars behave with different tyres, like Williams last time out.
REN better get their reliability and operational issues straight.
I fully agree with your last piece of text. HUL does have the better of RIC thus far, which didn’t surprise me, but lets wait and see if/how fast RIC can come to grips with the REN. Let’s not forget about that tricky back of which SAI said he was still struggling with it at the end of last year, and with which HUL has now 2+ years experience with and still wants it fixed.
He Man
1st April 2019, 8:05
Not quite sure how you can say that. All weekend Ricciardo’s been off Hulk’s pace. If it wasn’t for electrical issues, Hulk could’ve qualified 6th or 7th like he was threatening to do in all practice sessions. Ric on the other hand didn’t even make amends it rob Q3 and was outpaced form the first lap, even before he was put on a one stop. The only reason he was put on a one stop was to do something different and salvage something from a race where he was unfortunately just off the pace.
Nacho Nachev (@nnachev)
1st April 2019, 21:08
And yet HUL aggressiveness has probably contributed to his problems in practice and later in the race for both cars. So brave but stupid driving similar to what I’ve noticed in Coulthard.
RIC will adapt to the car or simply adapt the car to himself in a few races. Abiteboul will have to decide who he will listen to as they are now nowhere and RIC’s paycheck tells me they have already made their mind.
Anyway, kudos to HUL for the start.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
31st March 2019, 22:54
The car looks like it has pace, so it’s not all bad
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st April 2019, 5:30
@emu55 I agree, certainly the engine is at least quick, previously t was slow and unreliable
good power when they raced raikkonen.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
31st March 2019, 23:03
1+1=2
1. Renault is the 4th out of 4 engine’s + 2. McLaren does better with the same engine as the Renault works team is doing.
= Renault is a laughingstock
Palle (@palle)
31st March 2019, 23:04
The Renault team had probably forgotten to extend the subscription for the MGU software they use, hence both cars shut down at the same time:-)
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th April 2019, 3:35
Ahah, that would make sense.
Bram (@br444m)
31st March 2019, 23:05
“We’re the biggest car company in the world. They sell energy drinks”.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st March 2019, 23:12
@br444m – Energy drinks are what energize you to finish that last lap ;)
Roger Camp (@rogercamp)
31st March 2019, 23:14
Cyrill is biting his own tongue. I guess he won’t be on his job for much longer.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
1st April 2019, 5:32
When you look at stock value that’s when you realise the drinks company is more valuable than most car companies.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
1st April 2019, 6:08
@peartree – whoa, I didn’t realize that. Colour me impressed!
Pyon (@pyon)
1st April 2019, 21:28
@peartree RBR is not publicly listed, so it does not have a stock value (which does not mean much btw). Their estimated revenue is $7bn that you can compare to Renault’s $57bn. Renault employs 200k persons while RBR employs 12k. This of course does not include the assets which are likely to be much in Renault’s favor. In terms of “size” RBR is a dwarf company compared to Renault.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th April 2019, 3:36
Well, they seem to do the opposite in f1, which given this data is a plus to red bull.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
13th April 2019, 5:53
@pyon red bull is a GmbH therefore it’s listed. reading the wiki only got you so far. According to forbes in 2018 Red Bull is #61 most valuable company, renault nissan is #70. Google employs 53k people they’re the 2nd most valuable company in the world, apple is 1st and they still employ less people than renault.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
31st March 2019, 23:35
Well in my eyes this is just unexceptionable. Renault are not a new team just starting out ,they are not a small team with limited resources.
Renault have been involved in F1 as a constructor/engine builder/supplier since 1977. They have enough history and back ground knowledge about F1 to understand what it takes to win, Renault ICE have won well over 150 races. They have been using the current tech since it’s introduction, just like like Merc and Ferrari.
Renault is now struggling to keep up with HAAS a car built from a parts bin and the Ferrari and RedBull B teams.
Renault need to up their game significantly and quickly or continue to be seen as a bit of a joke.
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
31st March 2019, 23:44
well, TBH, Haas went nowhere as well this race
Maximilian (@maximilian)
1st April 2019, 2:04
That was down to a broken strategy. They tried to put KMAG on a one-stop strat and Stroll rather quickly ended RoGro’s race on lap one. Haas clearly have the better car, they’re still just making the same unforced errors. Steiner should either reevaluate the folks on the pitwall or Gene should reevaluate Steiner.
rpiian (@rpiian)
31st March 2019, 23:59
This is getting ridiculous. You’d think after developing this engine formula for over 7 years they’d have figured it out.
Antz (@antznz)
1st April 2019, 0:19
I want to be a fan of Renault but its just too heart breaking… Hulk has been superb this season, he deserves a better car than this
EC (@dutch-1)
1st April 2019, 1:17
Renault engine failures are “frustrating and unacceptable” – So isn’t that what Horners was saying the last few years?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
1st April 2019, 4:45
Haha, yep! And it’s something Abiteboul has always fought back with “they are not running to our specification” or some rubbish. Now he has absolutely no excuse.
Surely his days are numbered, but as he seems to be the driving force behind the teams existence, makes me worry for the future of Renault F1.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
1st April 2019, 6:16
Renault have certainly not done much to impress. But at least this year they actually brought some more power.
Sadly, I see things going backwards as their usual reaction is “we’ll focus on reliability” which means they’ll probably sacrifice power gains.
What’s even more galling is that they’ve been singing that same refrain now since 2014 and frankly haven’t shown much improvement in bot reliability or power.
They’ll definitely come under the corporate microscope as they’ve clearly not made much gain on their chassis (compared to Mclaren using the same PU) and have not been all that reliable on the PU front despite “apparently” investing a great deal in their operation and a new driver.
I seriously hope they can get their act together but so far 2019 has not been all that inspiring.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
1st April 2019, 2:34
In one of the replay’s there appeared to be smoke coming from the exhaust, as though something was causing oil to be burnt. I think that was from Hulkenberg’s car. I got the impression Ricciardo’s car failed for a different reason, but why this would happen at almost exactly the same moment is a mystery.
Maximilian (@maximilian)
1st April 2019, 3:33
There was a replay during the world feed from the rearward-facing camera on Hulk’s car that certainly suggested engine failure. The telltale puff of smoke before sputtering to a stop.
Didn’t Hulk have a similar electrical failure last season?
lunaslide (@lunaslide)
1st April 2019, 7:03
Sainz’s PU failure in Melbourne apparently was caused by the same thing. What must Riccardo be thinking right now?
MacLeod (@macleod)
1st April 2019, 7:49
Renault had 4 cars and only 1 could finish, the auto switch off we seen looks the same Daniel had last year with Red Bull.
So it’s some thing in the electronics bad day for Nico and Daniel.
krxx
1st April 2019, 10:42
*Shocking*
Brownerboy96
1st April 2019, 12:34
French car. Nothing more needs to be said
Jelle van der Meer (@)
1st April 2019, 14:30
Horner wasn’t about to pass up a chance to deride Red Bull’s former engine partner.
“Renault blowing up unfortunately didn’t help us see the podium,” he told the media. “It’s ironic, isn’t it? Whether they’re in the car or out of the car!”
Brilliant comment from Horner but it might actually have made Cyril feel a bit better knowing that his team misfortune also impacted Red Bull.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th April 2019, 3:41
Ahah, yes, however as someone who hopes red bull do well I wouldn’t be happy if they have to resort to mechanical problems for their opponents to get podiums, I’d prefer if there were actual performance!
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
1st April 2019, 17:28
Renault F1 is the worst marketing investment any company could make.
IF Renault drops it’s F1 team, it likely drops it’s entire F1 efforts as well. That would be bad for the sport. This is also why I don’t like team owners that are only in F1 for marketing reasons, i.e. Mercedes, Renault, RedBull (and thus Torro Rosso). They could kill F1 eventually.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
6th April 2019, 8:42
You forgot to mention Haas, McLaren, Ferrari & Alfa Romeo, and Williams.
It seems the only team in this without a marketing reason is Racing Point. I was a little surprised that Lawrence Stroll chose “Racing Point” as the name for the team and not some brand recognised name he could owned. I guess he’ll be pleased he’s got a loyal fan.
F1ed (@rinodina)
1st April 2019, 19:19
Renault finished 1 out of 4, Honda 4 out of 4. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think while Honda has gone forward, Renault at best stagnated.