Breaking news

Formula 1

Red Bull 'not involved' in qualifying fuel debacle

GMM

Edited: Nov 8, 2012, 6:58 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing waits to start the race from the pit lane

Red Bull has distanced itself from the blame, following Sebastian Vettel's disastrous qualifying session in Abu Dhabi last weekend.

Disqualified from the session after scrutineers could not extract the necessary litre of fuel for sampling, the championship leader had been asked to stop the car urgently following advice from engine supplier Renault.

It emerges that Renault feared damage to the engine and other systems if Vettel's RB8 had been left to run completely out of fuel.

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing waits to start from the pit lane

Photo by: xpb.cc

"We saw some numbers going down," said Vettel, "and in order to save the engine, save the pumps in between etcetera, we decided to stop the car, convinced that we had enough fuel in the car to provide a sample."

So why wasn't enough fuel put in the car for the decisive qualifying session?

"It's difficult," team boss Christian Horner is quoted by Germany's RTL, "because Renault was sure there was enough fuel in the car.

"What happens is the engineers for the engine side calculate the amount of fuel to be put into the car. As a team, we (Red Bull) are not involved in it," he insisted.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Slim 'quite sure' Gutierrez to race Sauber in 2013

Next article Boss Abiteboul, racer van der Garde tipped for Caterham

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

38 min

Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen to race for JR Motorsports again in 2027

NASCAR legend Fred Lorenzen first driver diagnosed with CTE after donating brain

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 55 min

NASCAR legend Fred Lorenzen first driver diagnosed with CTE after donating brain

Max Verstappen defends Chris Lulham after online abuse

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance

WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 59 min

Max Verstappen defends Chris Lulham after online abuse

Mercedes: “We had people who hadn’t done a live pitstop for 15 years” in Singapore GP

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

1 h

Mercedes: “We had people who hadn’t done a live pitstop for 15 years” in Singapore GP

Feature

Discover prime content

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

Formula 1

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Why Oscar Piastri has struggled to show his best with this year's McLaren MCL40

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts