Its been a long week of investigations for the Red Bull team this week as they worked to find out what the issue was with both of their cars after both drivers failed to finish the race in Bahrain.
At first it was thought to be an issue with the fuel pump, which is actually a standardised part provided to teams from an outside company.
“What we suspect is that there are problems with the fuel pump for both cars,”
“But the fuel pump doesn’t come from us, we just have to take it. And we never had this problem before, that’s the strange thing.”
Helmet Marko – speaking in the immediate aftermath of the race.
However there were doubts early on from Christian Horner.
“What looked like a decent haul of points suddenly evaporated obviously in the last couple of laps there,” he said.
“But it looks like a similar issue on both cars. We don’t know exactly what it is yet, whether it’s a lift pump, whether it’s the collector or something along those lines, but we’ve got to get into it and understand exactly what’s caused it.”
Christian Horner
There was also speculation of the team inadvertently underfuelling both cars, but again under investigation there was plenty of fuel left within the tanks.
The issue has now been solved however as the team have revealed that the issue was a result of a vacuum in the fuel system, starving the engine of fuel.
“To put it simply, a vacuum in the fuel supply system caused the engine to run out of fuel, I think the problem will be solved already for Saudi Arabia this weekend. Without giving exact figures, there was still enough fuel in the tank of both cars,”
“Basically, we were fast enough, We were just not able to use our potential at the decisive moment. In Saudi Arabia we will be back at full speed and fight for victory.”
Helmet Marko
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will be looking to claw back some serious points after leaving Bahrain without any. Where do you think both drivers will finish?