Christian Horner has openly criticised engine supplier Renault, citing the reliability and performance of its power units as "unacceptable"

On a day which saw just one car from the Red Bull stables finish the race at its own track, Horner finally lost patience with the French manufacturer which has been supplying its engines since 2007 (this year only for Toro Rosso) and with which it has won four successive titles.

"The reliability is unacceptable. The performance is unacceptable," he told reporters following the race in which Montreal winner Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth, passing Nico Hulkenberg on the final lap.

"There needs to be change at Renault," he added. "It can't continue like this. It's not good for Renault and it's not good for Red Bull."

Trailing Mercedes by 158 points, the Austrian will clearly be eyeing the progress being made by Williams and Force India, which both use the German manufacturer's power units.

Despite introducing the turbo engine to F1 in 1977, Renault, which was the main driving force behind the introduction of the new rules, threatening to walk away from the sport if they were not introduced, has struggled since the very start of pre-season testing.

"We need to work together as partners," said Horner. "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. Something needs to happen because whatever's being done there at the moment isn't working. It's not our business, it's not our responsibility. We're the end user and it's just frustrating that it's not where it needs to be at the moment."

With Horner's frustration finally made public, a situation not helped by the fact that team owner Dietrich Mateschitz was present for the race, a number of different options have been talked about in recent weeks including the Austrian team building its own engine. While improvements have been made there is clearly still a long, long way to go.

Chris Balfe

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by gturner38, 25/06/2014 0:36

"The biggest issue the Renault teams had at the start was overheating and it impacted Red Bull far worse than the other Renault runners, including Toro Rosso. That wasn't entirely the engine manufacturer's fault. It was the overly aggressive design from Newey. Some of the work getting better has to be done by the "end user" to help get performance out of it.

Incidentally, the three Red Bull cars that dropped out of the Austrian GP did so because of brakes, a tire induced suspension failure, and the team not wanting to bother pounding out any more laps. The engines weren't the weak point."

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2. Posted by Kkiirmki, 24/06/2014 6:40

"Is it really that the Renault engine is that bad or just that the Mercedes one that good?"

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3. Posted by Paul C, 24/06/2014 3:50

"It might work better if you didn't hang all of the junk beyond the turbo on it and starve it for fuel."

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4. Posted by Jonno, 23/06/2014 16:09

"There's a reason behind this bleating. Renault will now be able to make changes to their engine because of *reliability issues*. It will be a repeat of how Red Bull and Renault were able to work together to get the rear end blowing to work.
The loss of a few points in a race won't worry RB/Renault as they're looking at the long term.
"

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5. Posted by Mike Jacobson, 23/06/2014 14:47

"Red Bull's options are limited by the lack of alternate engine suppliers, which is solely due to F1's technical straightjacket.

Instead of whingeing about his current engine provider, Christian Horner should campaign for more liberal engine regulations that would encourage more than a paltry four car companies (including Honda next year) to throw their hats into the, er, Red Bull ring."

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6. Posted by Tony B Liar, 23/06/2014 13:37

"Christian, you say you are "just an end user", "not to blame" and that it's ALL Renault's fault. Are you by any chance worried about your future employment??
Stop bleating.
Man-up.
Get on with the job that you are paid an obscene amount of money to do.
And while you're at it, sort out that pouting bottom lip on the boy Vettel too.
I'm sure that the Prince of Darkness (aka Marko the Mean) will whip you all into shape soon.
"

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Horner blasts Renault reliability

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