Ron Dennis believes that the real reason Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel missed out in Bahrain two weeks ago could be fuel related.
Vettel looked odds on to take the F1 2010 season opener, until he suddenly lost power on lap 34, and was then overhauled by the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa and the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton. He eventually limped home in fourth.
The issue was initially blamed on an exhaust problem, before the Milton Keynes-based outfit later said it was actually due to a spark-plug failure.
Former McLaren F1 boss Dennis isn’t convinced and has told ESPN that it may be due to the fact the RB6′s fuel tank is too small or fuel consumption was greater than expected.
“The lap times dropped so rapidly that one can imagine the electronic control unit switching to a conservative programme to save fuel. The problem with the Red Bull could be design. It could be the fuel tank is too small, or the fuel consumption is higher than they expected,” he said.
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What do you think?
40 winks commented on this article
Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 2:49 pm
If I’d managed to stay awake past the 11th lap I might know what this was all about.
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Tindog commented on this article
Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Well, considering Red Bull are a team known for clarity and HONESTY (unlike McLaren by the way), I believe them when they say it was a spark plug, but I think the exhaust had an effect too.
and to comment 24, I doubt McLaren are gonna let Button win, despite all their claims about not having a no1 driver etc…
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Tindog commented on this article
Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 6:50 pm
also to the rest of comment 24, McLaren have been bad winners and also bad losers for quite some time now, so I don’t expect anything to change there.
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Omee commented on this article
Thursday March 25, 2010 at 1:39 am
Totally disagree with Ron Denis, if fuel consumption was the problem with Vettel, what about Massa he ahd the same problem, but he backed off a bit when team told him sum 30-35 laps befo chequered flag, it was definetly spark plug or sumthing else not fuel.
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F1 Nut commented on this article
Thursday March 25, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Please may we have the TRUE reason for Vettel loss of power… next we might have a lion attacked the Red Bull. Cool.
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ioio commented on this article
Monday March 29, 2010 at 12:31 pm
comment 24 “Shame on BBC and TG said…”
Looks like your going to have to start liking Mclaren again…
Hat’s off to Button.. Hamilton blamed the team for bringing him in for new tyres.(Aus) If Hamilton carries on with his non-sence, We might just see Button get the team behind him and hamilton become number 2. (I kinow he is No.2 anyway) Wouldn’t that be good. He doesn’t have big Ron to run to anymore…
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ioio commented on this article
Monday March 29, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I don’t understand.. Why would red bull blame Renault for failure if it wasn’t the real cause. Surely Renault would not like that and not let Red bull get away with that. (Spark plug is part of the engine i believe)
I think something else broke in the engine bay breaking the spark plug. I’m sure i heard someone say that somewhere..Could be wrong about that though.
What is the reason Red Bull are lyng? What are they trying to cover up?? Doesn’t make sense..People need to be more specific in what they are saying in order to make it credable!! Remember the Renaut engine is around 40Hp down on Mercedes. It’s also meant to be a little more efficient and therfore needs a smaller fuel tank.
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FAlonsoFan commented on this article
Tuesday March 30, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I honestly doubt that it was fuel related. If you were listening closely as the car past the track cameras, especially accelerating away from the tighter corners, you could definitley hear a rough sounding Renault engine that could have been a cracked exhaust (more than likely considering Adrian Newey’s design of a lower exiting exhaust system) but in any case it IS a Renault issue and the aforementioned engine supplier needs to get their stuff together if Red Bull are to have a fighting chance at the title. And don’t even mention brakes………
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broad commented on this article
Tuesday August 24, 2010 at 9:41 am
It will be such a waste of time if we will blame it to the engine or worst to the amount of fuel the car’s fuel tank can take. I mean I can hear the trembling of the car through out the race. Maybe it is something to be linked with the process of production of the car itself.
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Micheal commented on this article
Thursday December 9, 2010 at 8:52 am
Finding a loophole in the regulations is not cheating (by definition). The double diffuser was also a hole in the regulations. The FIA will close the loophole and then it would be cheating to break the rule.
http://www.trucks4review. com/ford-escape-review.ht ml
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