Christian Horner insists Renault need to significantly improve after more reliability issues affected all three teams they supply during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Red Bull Racing saw Max Verstappen retire early on during Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps, while Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat required a complete power unit change ahead of the race. There were also internal combustion engine changes for both Verstappen and Jolyon Palmer of the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team.
Red Bull boss Horner says that Renault need to solve the reliability issues they’ve had this season, with four of Verstappen’s six retirements being caused by engine related issues, and that the problems should not be as bad as this in Formula 1.
“Renault are quite aware that their reliability and product isn’t where it should be,” said Horner. “It’s their business to sort that out.
“We’re a paying customer and it’s obviously below par the service we are seeing at this point in time because [of the] reliability issues, the failures. We pay a hell of a lot of money for the engine. They need to sort it out.
“It’s hurting them as much as it is hurting ourselves. At this level, you can’t afford the kind of failures that we’re consistently seeing. Reliability across the three teams is pretty dire.
“Turbo failures with [Daniil] Kvyat, engine replacements that have had to happen with two cars as we come here. It’s not great, it’s far from great and it’s not the level an engine supplier which wishes to be competitive in F1 should be at.
“They are working hard at it and hopefully putting in place process to avoid the kind of issues that we are seeing.”
