Renault engines ruined Vettel and Grosjean’s race

VALENCIA, SPAIN : Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Red Bull Racing prepares to drive during the European Grand Prix at the Valencia Street Circuit on June 24, 2012 in Valencia, Spain.

It has been revealed that alternator failure was the cause of the retirement of Sebastian Vettel during the Valencian Grand Prix. The problem was diagnosed by engine supplier, Renault Sport F1. Romain Grosjean, who has a Renault engine in his car as well, had the same issue with his car. Both the first and second placed driver were forced to leave the race, where after Fernando Alonso took lead.

Cyril Dumont of Renault admits that the causes of the Vettel and Grosjean retirements are very likely to be the same.

“The alternator overheated, stopped supplying electrical power and the engine shut down,” he explained. “We’re not sure exactly why – it could be a number of things – but it’s definitely something we’ll look at when we get back to Viry.”

Vettel was leading the race the entire time. He went from a lead of 20 seconds to pulling his car over in the 34th lap, which was a restart lap that followed after the appearance of the Safety Car. Both the German driver and his team principal are very disappointed about the unfortunate happening. The situation is even more bitter because Vettel’s last retirement, due to another engine problem, also secured the win of the Spanish Fernando Alonso.

“It was a bitterly disappointing race for Sebastian, who had done everything right,” said Team Principal Christian Horner.

“He looked to be in comfortable control until unfortunately, during the Safety Car period, we had a suspected issue with the alternator which caused him to retire. We need to get the car back to fully understand the failure which we will work through with Renault, as it looked similar to the one that Grosjean had.”

Romain Grosjean came close to a podium place during Sunday’s race. He could already taste his victory until he had to stop on Lap 41 due to alternator failure, just like Vettel.

“Basically, the car lost power and switched off,” he explained. “I couldn’t even call my engineer on the radio, as the radio was dead. The race was almost perfect up until that point: we had a good start and a good strategy. I don’t think we were that far from our first win.”

Grosjean was convinced that a first Formula 1 win would have been possible if the engine problem didn’t occur.

“The positives of this weekend are that we battled right at the front and we showed good pace. Sebastian was very strong and I don’t know if we could have caught him. When he had his issue, I was in second place behind Fernando and it was then that I thought we could challenge for the lead because we knew that our tyre degradation was going to be less than his. Unfortunately, fate decided otherwise.”