Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul has hit back at comments from Red Bull’s Adrian Newey, accusing the design guru of lying about the Renault power unit.
The Briton blamed Red Bull’s lack of competitiveness solely on the Renault engine, claiming that it’s “far behind” rival units and there is seemingly “no light at the end of the tunnel”.
Abiteboul however claims the RB11 chassis has its flaws which are contributing to the driveability problems the team spoke of during the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
“In addition to our problems, Red Bull has some chassis problems that do not help the situation,” he told Auto Hebdo magazine. “In particular, the lack of rear stability. These two problems combine to ensure the car is difficult to drive.”
When asked if it was hard to read Newey’s comments, he said: “Yes, it’s difficult to have a partner who lies.
“Adrian is a charming man and an engineer without parallel, but he’s spent his life criticising engine partners. He’s too old to change his ways.”
Renault are adamant there exist problems on both sides of the partnership and they’re working hard to resolve their own.
“We need to work together to understand our issues, both within the power unit and the chassis,” he added.
“Our figures have shown that the lap time deficit between Red Bull and Mercedes in Melbourne was equally split between driveability issues, engine performance and chassis performance. It’s therefore the overall package that needs some help and we have been working with the team to move forward.
“We’ve been particularly aggressive in development and we should see the results a lot more clearly in Malaysia, particularly since we have had the opportunity to refine the PU using the data from Australia. Work is still ongoing but even now we are in a completely different place to where we finished Melbourne.”
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