Red Bull and its Renault power unit have had issues throughout the first week of testing (Wednesday, Thursday) for the new Formula One season.
Daniel Ricciardo said this was likely something that would needed to be fixed at the factory. The team added end of day Thursday, “We’re trying to get the car ready for tomorrow. If things don’t go to plan then, we have 2 weeks until the next test so time’s on our side.”
The car was ready for Friday, but, the niggling issues continued. After seven laps Friday, and 21 total over four days, the team has packed up early and left Jerez, and are en route back to the factory at Milton Keynes.
“It’s been a very difficult test. We have had numerous Renault issues as well as chassis cooling issues, which have affected our progress,” said team principal Christian Horner.
“What we have managed to learn shows that the problems should be solvable for the next test in Bahrain. There will now be a lot of focus on the dyno over the next few weeks.”
Here’s the official tweet from the team confirming its early departure:
We’ve finished testing for the day. All focus now shifts to Bahrain. Full update to come shortly. pic.twitter.com/af07fb4ccu
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) January 31, 2014
Interestingly, Lotus opted to put a snarky dig in at its fellow Renault-powered squad earlier this week, even though it didn’t head to Jerez on its own. When replying to a tweet from former F1 driver Taki Inoue, this was Lotus’ response:
.@takiinoue Aww, we miss you like Red Bull misses their mileage today…
— Lotus F1 Team (@Lotus_F1Team) January 29, 2014
