Lotus have confirmed the engine problem Romain Grosjean experienced at the end of the Indian Grand Prix was related to the one which caused his retirement in Singapore.
Grosjean was told to short-shift his gear changes and said afterwards he was having to look after his engine during the final laps of Sunday’s race.
Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane said the team are working with engine supplier Renault to get to the bottom of the problem.
“The issue seems to be a repeat of the one we faced in Singapore where a leak in the pneumatic system caused a loss of air pressure. Fortunately, we know exactly what we have to do to fix it and Romain’s engine has gone through the correction process put in place after Singapore.
“Our engine partners are also checking – and double checking – every single race engine at Abu Dhabi to ensure that the same problem does not reappear.”
Grosjean finished third in India despite his engine problem. He and team mate Kimi Raikkonen still have one unused engine remaining from their original allocation of eight units for the season.
2013 Indian Grand Prix
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- 2013 Indian Grand Prix team radio transcript
Image © Lotus/LAT
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
29th October 2013, 15:01
These drivetrain problems from Renault have become a bit of an issue since Italy. Both the Bulls and the Lotuses are getting gremlins every other weekend.
Candice
29th October 2013, 15:06
kers, alternator, pneumatic system or whatever.
F1 looking good in 2014 with the end of rbr domination =)
Lewis McMurray (@celicadion23)
29th October 2013, 15:56
Yeah but they’ll all be on Ricciardo’s car, Vettels is magically limited to one mechanical failure a season, MAYBE two if Christian Horner forgets to do his daily prayers to the Renault gods
mantresx (@mantresx)
29th October 2013, 16:13
@celicadion23 You know, I’ve often wondered if the mechanics and engineers of a specific car within the team are the main reason we see problems in one of the drivers, Schumacher certainly had more problems than Rosberg last year for example, so maybe it’s a good idea for Red Bull to shuffle around their personnel.
Phil R
29th October 2013, 17:24
Ever since the steward days the team have struggled to have two competitive and reliable cars.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
29th October 2013, 17:59
You mean: “so maybe it’s not a good idea for Red Bull to shuffle around their personnel.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
30th October 2013, 8:22
@mantresx not a god idea, then (as @mike-dee said). You want the driver most likely to win you races and championships having the best opportunities to do it, no?
TheBass (@)
29th October 2013, 16:18
@celicadion23
https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1/forum/topic/vettel-webber-and-reliability-at-red-bull/
TheBass (@)
29th October 2013, 16:18
@mantresx That, too ^
David Margono (@woshidavid95)
29th October 2013, 18:25
Perhaps someone should promote that thread on every relevant article… it’s getting really tiresome TBH; I never understood why people keep perpetuating this utterly ridiculous, baseless and untrue conspiracy
mantresx (@mantresx)
29th October 2013, 20:35
@woshidavid95 @silence Yes, I know there’s no conspiracy, I’m just trying explain why Red Bull or any other team would have more reliability problems in one car than the other.
The cars are the same except for the mechanics and engineers working on them, so that would be one reason.
Rambler
29th October 2013, 22:08
@mantresx
But it isn’t just on one car. Do you even read?
Toxic
29th October 2013, 23:37
The thing with the post under this link is that it doesn’t tell the truth. The stats will never say the truth and if someone’s watching all the races knows exactly who has more problems with the car. Probably only in 2009 and 2010 they were more or less 50:50 but past 3 years it’s mostly Mark who gets majority of the problems.
TheBass (@)
29th October 2013, 23:51
@Toxic You’re welcome to post your own list if you think that one is wrong. But until that, that list is the best we have and tells a different story to the one you’re telling.
Without presenting any proof to it it’s better to save your disbelief to yourself.
David Margono (@woshidavid95)
29th October 2013, 23:52
Again Toxic, that’s a load of bull. If you cared to read that thread it has always been roughly 50:50, except for 2010 where it was actually Vettel who bore the brunt of Red Bull’s mechanical gremlins (Australia and Korea automatically spring to mind) and it’s thus the main reason why it’s the only year Webber actually appeared to be a match for Vettel. I don’t know how you can say that ‘it doesn’t tell the truth’ when it’s based on cold, hard facts, if there car has a problem then we all as viewers can see that they will either retire or lose places so I don’t see the logic in your statement.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
30th October 2013, 13:45
@silence that’s a good thread for putting down conspiracies, although needs to be updated with the last 4 races. If these are included Mark would have an extra two mechanical DNFs (Singapore & India), and Vettel one KERS issue in Japan qualy, on top of maybe some other glitches for both which had less effect. This would put Mark significantly worse off from this year but not necessarily over their total time together as team-mates.
Offtopic: Mark has other horrendous luck this year which is not reliability related such as Korea – puncture from Perez blow up, followed by safety car to completely screw his race, followed by Sutil collision causing another car fire. That race kind of sums up his season.
electrolite (@electrolite)
29th October 2013, 23:31
Perhaps Williams and Caterham too – but being out of the spotlight, we’re less likely to know about it.
Tomsk (@tomsk)
29th October 2013, 16:23
Are all these bits coming to the end of their working life? I mean engines and gearboxes that have done 3 or 4 races. I’m expecting to see a few drivers getting grid penalties for using an extra one in the final races – very smart of Grosjean to get some practice at starting further back!