Red Bull optimistic Renault's alternator fix will work
Red Bull is hoping that new alternators tried by Renault in Singapore will be ready to race in time for the Japanese Grand Prix
Following the double failure that wrecked Sebastian Vettel's Italian Grand Prix weekend, Renault tested some new parts with Red Bull during Friday practice at the Marina Bay circuit.
With those latest designs now being evaluated at Renault's Viry-Chatillon headquarters, Red Bull boss Christian Horner is keeping his fingers crossed that the revisions are good enough to allow them to be raced at Suzuka.
If not, then the Renault-powered teams will continue using an older batch of alternators that have proved to be trouble-free so far. But there are not enough of those to last the season.
Horner said: "I would hope we have them for the next race. I think Renault have got more dyno testing to run on them.
"I think they have understood what the problem was with the [Jerome] d'Ambrosio failure because there was something left afterwards. So that has given some tell-tale signs of what to work on to rectify."
Horner admitted that, with a number of Renault-powered teams retiring from the Singapore GP, he was worried that alternator issues had returned.
"Every time I saw a Renault powered car stop, the first question I asked was, 'why?'" said Horner. "Thankfully [Pastor] Maldonado retired with hydraulics, then there was an issue with Caterham, I think they forgot to put a wheel on. The alternators on both our cars behaved impeccably."
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