Red Bull's Engine Issues Could Be Caused by High Fuel-Consumption - Dennis

Although it was widely believed that the Renault powerplants are currently eating up the lowest amount of fuel as compared to the rest of the units in Formula One – with Mercedes second, Cosworth third and Ferrari in last place – former McLaren Mercedes boss Ron Dennis issued a whole other hypothesis in recent days.

According to the more-relaxed McLaren official, who was also present at the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix a couple of weekends ago, Sebastian Vettel's engine problem looks more like a fuel consumption issue than a spark plug related incident.

“The lap times dropped so rapidly that one can imagine the electronic control unit (ECU) switching to a conservative programme to save fuel. The problem with the Red Bull could be design. It could be the fuel tank is too small, or the fuel consumption is higher than they expected,” Dennis was quoted as saying by the ESPN.

The problem occurred during Lap 33 of the Bahrain race, which is when Vettel's lap times began to increase rapidly. After the race, Red Bull issued a statement in which they confirm the problem was caused by a failed spark plug. However, had this have been the case, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg should have also caught the German driver in the late laps of the race.

However, in the last couple of laps, Vettel's times were quite competitive, making it impossible for the Mercedes driver to approach the RB6.

According to Red Bull, an investigation into their engine problem in Bahrain is still ongoing, with the results to be found out in due time.