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Sebastian Vettel agrees that dumping Red Bull's alternator supplier should be an option. As the team's engine partner Renault grapples to solve the failing alternator problem with its supplier Magneti Marelli, team boss Dietrich Mateschitz revealed last week that Red Bull is pushing the option of simply reverting to a new supplier. After German Vettel broke down with the same problem in Valencia and again recently at Monza, Renault has had to admit that it is yet to get to the bottom of why the failures are occurring.
The French marque is, however, getting closer, especially after the alternator in Jerome d'Ambrosio's Lotus almost failed at Monza. "We are quite sure now what fails first, but we still do not know why," Renault's Remi Taffin is quoted by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. "But at least we know now what we have to work on."
The report said a modified version of the alternator will be tested in Singapore practice. Taffin also played down the recent failure on Pirelli's 2010 Renault test car. "The (Pirelli) part had done about 6000 kilometres, where the failures in Valencia and Monza were from mileage of between 500 and 1000km," he said.
Still, world champion Vettel said Renault should not rule out simply dumping Magneti Marelli, even though the Italian company has a good reputation among its many other clients on the grid. "Switching suppliers overnight is not so easy," said Vettel, "but if all else fails, you have to think about it."
Taffin said that is not really an option, given Renault's excellent "long term partnership" with its current supplier. "One thing I can promise," he said, "is that we will solve this problem." (GMM)
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