Toro rosso and Renault fall out
War of words between engine supplier and STR
Red Bull Racing was forced to step in to calm a bitter row that broke out between its junior team, Toro Rosso, and engine supplier Renault during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend.
Toro Rosso has suffered myriad failures on its Renault power units this year, and the war of words broke out after Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley were hit with grid penalties before the race. Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul admitted to the firm turning down its engines in Brazil due to reliability issues.
Abiteboul also said that “we have concerns about the way that our engine is operated within the Toro Rosso car”.
That suggestion prompted an angry statement in response from Toro Rosso, defending its installation of the engine and pointing out that it is in fact ahead of Renault in the Constructors’ Championship.
The relationship between Toro Rosso and Renault has become increasingly strained since the Italian team agreed to swap to Honda units from next year, freeing up Renault’s supply to power Mclaren instead.
When asked about the spat, Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost told Sky Sports F1: “Our statement was a reaction to Cyril’s interview yesterday where he blamed the team for the power unit failures, which is absolutely wrong. Why should I apologise? For all the damages we have? We’re both upset.
“Who started with all this nonsense? Cyril, with his stupid interview. Should I say ‘Oh fine, good interview from him, we accept it’? No, we don’t accept it. Therefore we came out with our statement.”
Renault’s special advisor Alain Prost said: “We don’t want to enter this game of answering. I listened to what Franz said. As you know Renault has been in F1 for a long time, and we prove that by giving exactly the same engine to everybody, which is not the case of the other manufacturers. We will never play any dirty game to gain one position.”
Red Bull’s Helmut Marko was also seen having a heated conversation with Abiteboul before final practice on Saturday. Red Bull also runs Renault units but badged as TAG Heuer.
Marko then released his own statement to calm the waters, saying: “Over the last 10 years, many successful, we have been through every emotion with our current engine supplier. As usual at the end of the season emotions are running high, but it is a valued relationship and will remain so. There has never been a question that we have not been treated fairly by our engine suppliers. And that is still true today.”