Renault Apologizes for Unexpected Red Bull Engine Failure

Usually, when a driver experiences an engine failure during a race, it's as unexpected for him as it is for his team. Which is probably what happened with both Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull Racing team during the recent Korean Grand Prix.

However, it seems that Vettel's engine problem has really surprised the Austrian team's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, as the former GP driver insisted it never crossed his mind that his driver's engine would fail this soon. Not only Red Bull but also Renault were taken by surprise, as the French manufacturer actually apologized for what happened.

“It's our first engine failure this year,” Marko was heard in a post-race interview with German television RTL.

“The mileage was at about 1600 kilometres, and normally the average (life) is 2000-2100. Something broke in the valve area, so it's the first time. On Friday we were using an engine with much higher mileage,” added the Red Bull consultant, who tried to encourage Vettel to keep his hopes up for the title.

“It's not easy, but there are still 50 points to get. Alonso is on his last engine. We're not giving up,” said Marko.

Indeed, championship leader Fernando Alonso doesn't have any more spare engines left for the last 2 rounds of the season – in fact, he has been in that situation since the Italian GP, at Monza – but the upcoming two circuits are not high-speed ones, meaning the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi races will not be too hard on the units.

In case the Spaniard does need to replace one of his engines, he will take a 10-place grid penalty for the race in which he'll use it. From the title contenders, Alonso is the only one with no engines left to use, with Vettel and Lewis Hamilton each having one more unit, while Webber has two.