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Max Verstappen has pleaded with Renault to remove a safety setting on its engine. The Dutchman claims it was a security setting on the engine that caused the failure mere laps into the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, putting an end to his race.
"They knew that this could happen," he said at a sponsor event in Milan on Wednesday. "I understand that they want to protect their brand. But if the car stops, the car stops, whether it's for a safety setting or a blown engine."
The incident was the third time in six races that an engine problem has ended the Dutchman's race. After the race, Alain Prost, who is an advisor at the French manufacturer, said that he apologised to the young Red Bull driver.
"I personally apologised to Max," he said. "I also apologised to Red Bull Racing. Not all of the six failures were our fault, but four of them were. And that's four too many. We often see inside a team that one driver has more bad luck than the other, for no apparent reason. We are very unhappy about the incidents and must finally solve the problem," Prost added.
Verstappen also admitted he lost his temper with a journalist at Spa, after it was suggested his aggressive driving style was causing his technical failures in 2017: "I was upset because that's not possible. Even if I wanted to I couldn't break the engine. So if someone is saying that, he doesn't understand Formula 1 at all."
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (2)
Login to replyboudy
Posts: 1,168
Jeez saw the onboard footage ... foot down ... engine shutting down .... nice work Renault.
The engine situation in F1 is dyer even Mercedes created the situation that they have a better package than their customers.
F1 needs to resolve the engine issue ... quickly
Hombibi
Posts: 137
Given that it takes years to agree an engine formula, then some to build and even more to "catch up" with the best engines, I can see only one fix that can make a real difference. Introduce a weight penalty system to bring the field closer together. This can easily be introduced by next season, or even next race if you really want. Otherwise I think this "engine issue" is not going to be resolved any time soon, not even with the new engine formula that is being discussed.
Once a clever weight handicap system is introduced, the engine specs/rules can be simplified, as the weight handicap brings the teams close. Use the weight penalties to gain extra constructor championship points. And once that works you can easily free up many design curfews that prevent designers introducing new technologies ( cvt, active suspension for instance ). And with all new possibilities for designers to dive into, reduce wingsurface drastically to allow cars to follow each other close. Than you can also remove ridiculous gimmicks such as drs...