Renault Sport have offered mea culpa for their part in the mechanical failures of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Lotus F1’s Romain Grosjean. both drivers looked to be in position for a win during the European Grand Prix in Valencia Sunday but alternator issues caused both drivers to stop on track. while Lotus F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen finished second and Red Bull driver Mark Webber finished fourth, Rémi Taffin, head of Renault Sport F1 track operations said they are feel bad about what transpired for Grosjean and Vettel as well as the KERS failure of Caterham F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen:
However we do need to hold our hands up and apologise to both Red Bull and Lotus on the problems on the sister cars of Sebastian and Romain. Both suffered alternator failures, although it seems for different reasons at this point in time. Sebastian’s overheated and the engine shut down, while Romain’s alternator failed and the electrical power to the engine stopped. We will of course thoroughly investigate the reasons for this when we get the units back to Viry to try and ensure that Red Bull and Lotus, plus our other partners, do not have the same issue in the future. Similarly, we will also work to understand the reasons for Heikki’s KERS failure – there is a lot of work to be done between now and Silverstone but we have a strong team and resources in the factory.
While tactics were changing during the race, it did seem as if Vettel may have had this race in the bag until his mechanical issue and this left Grosjean chasing the win with pace in hand until his untimely stoppage. Suggestions of heat-related failure have been made but at this point it is unclear what may have caused the issues as both failed for different reasons.
