Prost: No ‘dirty games’ with Toro Rosso
Renault advisor Alain Prost has tried to cool the war of words between themselves and Toro Rosso and promised that the Red Bull junior team will have engines for the season finale.
The slanging match started when Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul suggested that Toro Rosso's reliability problems were self-inflicted and had nothing to do with them.
Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost did not take that accusation kindly and, in a strongly-worded statement, intimated that Renault are getting involved in an act of sabotage to stop them from finishing above the Enstone team in the World Constructors' Championship.
Abiteboul and Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko were then seen having a heated discussion in the paddock over the controversial claims, but Prost is trying his best to calm both sides down.
“We would never play any dirty game to gain one position," Prost told Sky Sports F1.
"We are struggling at the moment at the end of the year, as everybody can see. It’s not good for us, Red Bull or Toro Rosso. I don’t want to enter into the game about what Cyril said.
“They will have an engine in Abu Dhabi, there is no question about that."
Prost also elaborated on the reliability issues that are affecting everyone running Renault power, with the works team and Red Bull also feeling the strain at the end of the season.
He added: “It’s a combination of different things. We improved a lot the engine this year and in fact better than we thought.
We were struggling with some parts, the MGU-H, some problem also with suppliers and then we had more problems with reliability with the three teams, especially Toro Rosso. So sometimes we miss some parts and at the end of the year we are struggling.
“It’s motor racing and sometimes you have a problem and then you have other things coming at the same time which makes it difficult. We are sorry, we do not want to have that.
"We want to finish sixth in the championship but we do not know if we are going to make it due to reliability problems. We suffer like everybody."
