Red Bull will switch to the newer-spec alternator for the final race of the season in Brazil on Sunday, Renault Sport have confirmed.
The French engine supplier also supplies the teams alternators which have so far resulted in four retirements for the team this season. That prompted them to return to the older version used prior to 2012 following their double retirement at the Italian GP.
Renault’s head of trackside operations Remi Taffin says they will however switch back to the newer, upgraded version following successful tests prior to Austin and during.
“It is very simple. We go for the new spec [in Brazil]. It has passed all the tests,” he told Autosport.
“It was a common decision, so we put everything on the table and we decided altogether we should go that way,” he said of the decision to use the old-spec in Austin despite Lotus, Williams and Carerham opting to do the opposite.
“The feeling was generally that there is some sense to keep on using something that we have known for years with low mileage and stuff like that, even if we had a new solution that we knew had gone through all the tests.”
