Renault fear fuel issue could ‘bite’ again

Cyril Abiteboul says Renault need to prioritising fixing their fuel pressure problem before it “bites” again.

Although a fuel pressure problem cost Nico Hulkenberg dearly in qualifying for the Spanish GP, that turned out to be blockage and not Renault’s usual problem.

The latter, though, did befall Carlos Sainz during the race forcing the Spaniard to back off in high G corners.

And unless Renault can find a solution, the team’s managing director fears it is a problem that they will see again.

“We had a bit of a warning on fuel pressure towards the end of the race,” Abiteboul told Autosport.

“And we had to manage it, and Carlos did that by going a bit easy in Turn 3, which is always a very challenging corner for fuel pressure.

“We don’t think it was related to Nico’s problems because we found an object in Nico’s fuel tank which was blocking.

“But it’s a problem that we’ve seen before, and that can happen in high-g corners like Turn 3, so that’s something that we need to fix, because there are a couple of races where it’s going to bite again.”