Verstappen and Red Bull have constantly expressed their concerns about the Renault engine, being extra vocal about it after the announcement of the Honda switch.
Red Bull have done away with their C-spec engine for the Sochi weekend, as the engine is expected not to deliver in the high altitudes Mexico and Brazil.
Abiteboul isn’t quite impressed with those comments and has asked Verstappen to focus on his car and not so much on the engine.
“I think that any engine performs not as good in a high altitude,” he said.
“I guess the power increase we have seen would have been equal in a track like Mexico. So no I don’t agree with those comments and in general I think Max should focus on the car.
“We had a drive-ability issue in Singapore in FP1 and into the weekend, and to a far less extent in qualifying. But I think that we have a very demanding user in the person of Max. Not very quiet, also.
“But I think the team has done a great job in order to provide Max what was needed in order to have a good weekend in Singapore, very clear.” he added.
Abiteboul has admitted to the fact that the C-Spec engine does have a few durability issues, something that Red Bull were aware of. When they did take that engine up for the Singapore GP, they were very well aware that they would have to go back to the B-Spec engine.
“I think it’s a step that is a clear step in power that can also be for a certain number of limitations and that was part of the plan to introduce at a later stage a B-spec. It’s a bit unusual in terms of pattern but it’s a plan we agreed specifically on the request of Red Bull.” he said.
“We do have durability concerns and therefore it was clear the engine introduced for Max would not have been able to do all the races so it was decided obviously to go to a different spec. But again that’s going back to the plan I was mentioning before with Red Bull engineering department and not driving department.” he concluded.
