As far as Renault are concerned – the manufacturer who is currently supplying the Austrian team the engines for the 2010 season of F1 – the issue doesn't concern them at all, as confirmed by a spokesman for the French company. According to him, the broken spark plug was the “symptom, not the cause” of Vettel's problem.
Additionally, Renault's engine technical boss Ron White admitted that what happened to Vettel in Bahrain still remains a “mystery.”
“Vettel, 22, said on Thursday that the problem had been traced to a broken tip at the top of a Champion spark plug fitted to his V8 engine,” said a report from the GMM news agency.
Following the race two weekends ago, Red Bull Racing announced that they have launched an internal investigation on the matter, but did not reveal any results. The initial reports suggested that the spark plug would be replaced and the engine would be used by Vettel during the Aussie GP practice sessions this Friday, although that information is yet to be confirmed by Red Bull in the Albert Park paddock.
An interesting hypothesis on what happened to Vettel's car was launched by former McLaren boss Ron Dennis, who suggested that the RB6 driven by the German driver could have ran in fuel-efficient mode during the last 16 laps of the race. A few days after Dennis' comments, Vettel hit back at the former McLaren official, saying that “maybe Ron Dennis wanted to attract attention with his theory.”
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