Renault engines suffer altitude sickness
RENAULT ADMITTED ITS PREPARATIONS for the altitude of the Mexican Grand Prix were not adequate after suffering a litany of failures – despite Max Verstappen’s victory.
Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly suffered a turbo problem on Friday, then an engine failure on Saturday that kept him out of qualifying, with team-mate Brendon Hartley stopping in the race with an engine issue. Renault pairing
Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr both retired from the race with power unit problems, while Daniel Ricciardo stopped with a turbo failure.
The air density in Mexico City is approximately 23% lower than at sea level, putting extra demands both on the engine and the turbocharger, and reducing cooling potential.
“We’ve made an error of judgement in our preparation in the way we have been trying to balance performance versus reliability,”said Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul.
“It’s clear when you look at the pace of the car around the weekend, lots of teams have come here taking the right approach when it comes to dealing with engine parameters and chassis parameters.
“We’re extremely competitive. The flipside is that we weren’t capable of being at the right level of reliability for that level of performance.
“At the same time, it’s a judgement that has allowed a car powered by Renault to be on the top step of the podium.”