Despite winning four straight Formula One titles together, Red Bull and Renault haven’t gotten along too well in the V6 turbo hybrid era, which kicked off in 2014.
Since then, Red Bull called out Renault in public in an attempt to force them to improve their power units, a strategy that ultimately failed. When asked by Autosport about his thoughts on the matter, current Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul had the following to say:
“One thing we can give credit to Christian [Horner, Red Bull team boss] and Red Bull is that they are fantastic at communication strategy. Communication is part of this world, it’s part of Formula 1, it’s part of your strategy and your tactics.”
“It’s not the first team and it’s not the last team to use all the weaponry of this world, and frankly you guys [the media], to influence what is going on. I was reading yesterday that Max [Verstappen] is happy to take an engine penalty – amazing!”
He then went on to add that even though their engine was “not at the required level in 2014 and 2015”, there are still mitigating circumstances to consider.
“You know, we were extremely happy and Renault has contributed to making Red Bull what it is today by winning four championships in a row.”
“From a financial perspective with sponsors, from a technology perspective with talent, recruitment, Red Bull is what it is today thanks also to Renault.”
As for Horner, he now admits that pressuring Renault into improving their engines by complaining publicly didn’t pay off.
“By 2015, when the engine was arguably worse than it was in ’14, then frustration boiled over to the point that it was like, ‘OK, if we are more open about what our frustrations are, maybe it will force a reaction’. At the time it was felt that maybe Renault couldn’t possibly afford the embarrassment of these engines not being competitive and not being reliable and not delivering.”
“Unfortunately it didn’t work.”
The turbo hybrid era has definitely created serious public tensions between teams and engine manufacturers. Apart from Red Bull and Renault, McLaren also had a falling out with Honda, which is now Red Bull’s official engine provider.