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Red Bull's choice of fuel supplier means it is not maxing out the power of the Renault engine. That is the claim of Cyril Abiteboul, as the long and often troubled Red Bull-Renault partnership enters perhaps its final days.
Red Bull is tipped to switch to Honda power for 2019, but is currently refusing to honour a decision deadline imposed by Renault.
Amid that delay, Renault boss Abiteboul said Red Bull's choice of fuel supplier has not helped the situation. "You can get extra power from the fuel but we can only guarantee performance equality with what we have in our hands," he told Auto Bild.
Renault and its customer McLaren use BP-Castrol fuel, while Red Bull works with Exxon-Mobil.
"For strategy and marketing reasons, they have their own partner, which we support," Abiteboul insisted. "I'm sure Exxon has the ability to catch up. But right now they are a bit behind."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (9)
Login to replyboudy
Posts: 1,168
Makes complete sense if Redbull switch towards Honda. This is a strange message to send out not sure what Cyril is trying to accomplish with it, sleeping dogs and such.
Hombibi
Posts: 137
Strange message indeed: did any of the other renault powered cars get closer to RB in Canada? I am sure telemetry of the acceleration allows each team to calculate exactly how much BHP each car has. It is just a shame we don't have access to that same data, I am certain we can do the math..
I think this message is purely intended for (social) media as a means to apply pressure on Red Bull Racing.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
This comment from Abiteboul does actually make sense. He is basically saying that if RB used BP, they'd get much better performance out of their engine, thus trying to explain how RB might not see the full strength of the Renault PU, be it before or after Canada. Doesnt have to be true, but there is probably a degree of truth in it. We've seen before how fuel tech has been able to make a world's difference in F1, so I can imagine that teams with BP get a better time since they have a direct collab with Renault. But as you say, A Honda switch is more and more beginning to sound reasonable. But we'll see.
Freguz
Posts: 160
Maybe everyone could use the same fuel supplier?
Hombibi
Posts: 137
Not if you believe F1 should (amongst others) be a competition of technology and innovation.
Major Tom
Posts: 152
It used to be that everybody used just the same fuel - supposedly the same fuel that you got out of a pump in a normal filling station. Perhaps this would be a way of cutting costs? (Or would it be a way of cutting sponsorship fees?)
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
.. and also same engine and Chassis.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Nah, I dont think its a good idea. Fuel isnt such an important thing to regulate that we need to have a monopoly on that, and I like that they get a chance at innovating in that aspect aswell. And if we removed that, chances are oil companies wouldnt like to sponsor teams anymore, and F1 would lose plenty of money that way.
f1ski
Posts: 726
total bs. don't think for a moment that renault and rbr haven't discussed fuel and analysis. Why does rbr seem to have better reliability perhaps the fuel has an effect on temp as well.my opinion is that brr rebrands the engine because they remap it. Their knowledge and insight here is what has j\helped honda.