‘Red Bull outages probably due to standard part’

The Ferraris in Bahrain were not only faster but also more reliable than the Red Bull Racing cars. Max Verstappen faced several problems during the race. For example, he complained about a malfunctioning power steering, but in the end the car even came to a complete stop. Not long after, teammate Sergio Perez’s RB18 suddenly came to a stop. That while earlier in the race, Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri equipped with the same engine came to a flaming standstill. However, it seems strongly that the failures of both Red Bulls are not due to the power source from Honda.

As Red Bull Racing communicated after the race, a problem with the fuel pump seems to be the cause. This is not made in-house, but a standard component that all teams use. Ted Kravitz, analyst at sky sports, explains that the problem could have been prevented. “It’s a standard fuel pump, designed and supplied by an Italian company, think what you will. They (the supplier, ed.) saw the problems coming and allowed the teams to inspect the fuel pump. Some teams had to replace it McLaren did that because they saw that it wasn’t collecting all the fuel at the bottom of the tank. I understand it has to do with the E10 fuel.” As far as is known, Red Bull did not replace the pumps and so probably ran into the problem outlined during the race.

Undoubtedly, the pumps will now be inspected more closely and possibly also replaced. It seems that the reason for the breakdown does not have to be sought from the power source, although there will undoubtedly be some discussion about the quality of these fuel pumps.