Horner: Renault in a bit of a mess

Editor

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has called on everyone involved with Renault F1 to "regroup" following a poor start to the 2015 season.

French manufacturer Renault was well off the pace of Mercedes following the introduction of the 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid engines last year, but they were hoping to catch up this year.

However, if early season indications are anything to go by then they are still well off the pace as only two Renault-powered cars saw the chequered flag in Australia as Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull came to a halt before the race even started while Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso suffered an engine failure midway through the race.

Horner, though, says it is important that everyone work together to move forward.

"It's important that we regroup with Renault and try to offer our support where we can because obviously they are in a bit of a mess at the moment," said Horner.

"They need to understand things quickly. It's not the start Renault can afford to have.

"Across the four cars [Red Bull and Toro Rosso] we have two engine failures, one within five laps, and a whole bunch of driveability issues."

Mercedes won Sunday's Australian GP by more than 30s from Ferrari while Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull was lapped and finished sixth.

When asked by Autosport if Renault can challenge at the front, Horner replied: "This year, no. But we need to be doing a lot better than we are. We need to be challenging Ferrari, we need to be challenging Williams.

"If we can sort the issues out, then we can do that."