Daniel Ricciardo believes there was a “fundamental” issue with Renault’s power units after the manufacturer endured a troubled weekend in Mexico.
While Max Verstappen recorded victory, Ricciardo retired after just a handful of laps, having taken on new power unit elements pre-race, consigning him to 16th on the grid.
Ricciardo’s exit came on a weekend in which Toro Rosso was plagued by problems, with Nico Hülkenberg also failing to finish, due to an ERS issue.
“At the start I did what I could, it was pretty close and there was a lot going on, but I thought I made quick progress,” said Ricciardo.
“I told Helmut [Marko] this morning that I would get up to seventh by the end of the first lap, I was a couple of laps off, but I got there and it was all looking pretty good.
“I think it was lap six when the turbo started to sound strange and then I had no power. I was able to limp back to the pits but that was obviously race over.
“Friday looked good, things went bad yesterday afternoon and then got worse today. We put the new power unit in last night and now we have a suspected MGU-H failure.
“There seems to be something fundamental going on with the engines, we’ve been coming here for the last couple of years so there shouldn’t have been any surprises.
“I guess the altitude and temperatures have been really hard to stay on top of and it’s been a pretty grim weekend for some of us.”
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