A eighth-place performance from Daniel Ricciardo and a retirement from Sebastian Vettel was far from what Red Bull was hoping for on its home track Sunday in Austria.
Afterwards, team boss Christian Horner went on the offensive against engine supplier Renault with a broad attack.
“The reliability is unacceptable. The performance is unacceptable and there needs to be change at Renault,” he said to reporters at the Red Bull Ring.
Over the weekend, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko had indicated that the team could go as far as to build its own engine in the future after what has been a trying 2014 season so far.
Such is the state of frustration at Red Bull, which has fallen behind Mercedes in the wake of Formula One’s shift to turbocharged, V-6 engines.
Horner himself said that such an idea was “highly improbable,” but added that while Red Bull wants to work with Renault in solving their problems, the manufacturer needs to get its act together.
“There will not be another engine in the back of the car next year, but we want to be competitive and we want to run at the front,” he said. “Something needs to happen because whatever’s being done there isn’t working at the moment.
“It’s not our business, it’s not our responsibility. We’re the end user and it’s just frustrating that the product is not where it needs to be at the moment.”
Renault’s deputy managing director, Rob White, sympathized as best he could with Horner’s frustration.
“The anxiety that Christian feels and the frustration he feels after a result that is not at the full potential of the performance of car and power unit is completely understandable and shared by us,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Benson.
“We are completely committed to making progress as fast as we possibly can and I think we have shown signs of progress before now, and we remain sure of where the expectations of Red Bull and Christian lie.”
Vettel was forced to retire his RB10 on Lap 37 to save his Renault engine. Early on in Sunday’s Grand Prix, an unexplained mapping issue caused him to lose drive when he pushed the overtake button in the cockpit.
The four-time defending World Champion was somehow able to reset his car and keep going, but had fallen a lap off the pace in the process.
As for Ricciardo, he suffered a poor start from fifth on the grid and, handicapped by the Renault’s lack of power, was unable to do much afterwards except stay in the lower reaches of the points.