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Renault vows better engine for Monaco GP

SAKHIR (Bahrain) — Formula 1 engine manufacturer Renault needs two more races before providing a competitive engine again at the Monaco Grand Prix, said chief technical officer Rob White.

Daniel Ricciardo during the final practice on Saturday for the Bahrain Grand Prix. He qualified for the race in seventh position. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Daniel Ricciardo during the final practice on Saturday for the Bahrain Grand Prix. He qualified for the race in seventh position. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

SAKHIR (Bahrain) — Formula 1 engine manufacturer Renault needs two more races before providing a competitive engine again at the Monaco Grand Prix, said chief technical officer Rob White.

Renault, which supplies engines to Red Bull and Toro Rosso, is under heavy pressure following a poor start to the season for both teams.

At last weekend’s Chinese GP, Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat and Toro Rosso teenage driver Max Verstappen both retired because of engine failure. “We had a bad day at the office in China and the consequences of that bear very heavily on everybody,” White said. “It’s never good to cause trouble for the teams or the drivers.”

At the season opener in Australia, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth and Kvyat failed to score points — well below expectations after Ricciardo won three races last season.

Both Red Bulls were lapped by race winner Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in Malaysia, after which owner Dietrich Mateschitz threatened to withdraw from F1 if Renault could not make engines more competitive.

Things have not gone well for Kyvat in Bahrain over the weekend, with the 20-year-old Russian spinning off the track during Saturday’s third practice session. He later finished 17th place in qualifying.

Ricciardo qualified in seventh position, while Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr, the son of two-time world rally champion Carlos Sainz, finishing an encouraging ninth. Verstappen struggled and placed 15th.

White said Kvyat’s engine failure in Shanghai was more understandable and a “counter-measure’’ has since been put into place, but acknowledged Verstappen’s setback had taken them by surprise because “we were absolutely not expecting such a thing at such a low mileage”.

White does not expect the problems to go away before the next race in Spain in three weeks.

“We are vulnerable to that failure still. The task back at the factory is to create a solution for the races ahead — we’re not out of the woods yet,’’ he said. “We’re hoping to be in a proper situation for Monaco where, of course, it’s very important (for the French supplier to do well in F1’s showcase race).”

A late change of specification for Renault’s 2015 power unit has been a contributing factor to the problems and White hopes a major upgrade later in the season will pay dividends.

There is big incentive to improve fast. This month, Mateschitz said: “We’ll stay in Formula 1 only if we have a competitive team and we need a competitive power unit for that.”

Heading into yesterday’s Bahrain GP, Red Bull are fifth in the constructors’ championship with 13 points, while Toro Rosso are sixth with 12.

It has been a fall for Red Bull, who clinched the drivers’ and constructors’ double with Vettel from 2010 to 2013, but lost their dominant position following the introduction of turbocharged hybrid engines last year.

Vettel left to join Ferrari after struggling throughout 2014. AP

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