Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo finished sixth at the Bahrain Grand Prix last weekend but not before the engine exploded into a huge cloud of white smoke as he crossed the chequered flag. It was the third engine failure this year that too in just four races. The Formula One 2015 rules restrict each constructor to just four engines for the entire season. So now Red Bull is left with just one engine for the next 14 races.

Red Bull faces engine limit crisis

“We are now on our engine limit”, said Horner, “That is three engines in four races.” Christian Horner however seemed to refrain himself from accusing his team’s engine supplier Renault for this. Daniel Ricciardo on the other hand was quiet elated with this sixth place finish. “I drove well, but it was a bit of a lonely sixth place”, he said, “There was a lot of smoke at the end so it didn’t look great! But the bright side is I just got over the line, but literally out of the last corner I saw smoke everywhere”.

Daniel Kvyat made it to the end of the race with the car intact at Bahrain Grand Prix but had a similar engine blow-out in the previous race at the Chinese Grand Prix. Red Bull had earlier threatened to quit the sport all together due to the poor result of the ‘underpowered’ Renault engines.

Renault had predicted for the Bahrain Grand Prix that the reliability problems that hit Red Bull and Toro Rosso in the Chinese Grand Prix may repeat itself at Bahrain and that is exactly what has happened. Renault’s F1 chief Cyril Abiteboul said that Renault had taken reliability gambles in its push for more power and performance. Red Bull and Renault have the price now and it has become a serious matter of concern. This may result in Red Bull making their way out of the Formula One business in haste. It remains to be seen what options Red Bull consider going forward from here.

Tags: Bahrain Grand Prix, Chinese Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo, Engine, F1, Formula One, Motorsport, Motorsports, Red Bull, Renault