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Red Bull confirm Ricciardo had lost 25% engine power during Monaco GP

Utkarsh Bhatla
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Ricciardo’s heroic Monaco GP win despite losing engine power mid way will be spoken about for years to come.

When Ricciardo has communicated to his team that he was experiencing power loss issues, it seemed like his race won’t last long and Vettel would be able to get another grand prix win this season.

However, Ricciardo hung in there, dug deep and somehow scraped through to the finish line despite his engine troubles.

Red Bull confirmed that he had lost 25% of his engine power and wasn’t allowed to make a mistake as Vettel was breathing down his neck all the time.

“He has lost about 25% of the power of the engine,” Horner said, as quoted by Sky Sports.

“And then because of the way these engines work, his rear brake temperatures are going through the roof.

“We saw it with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg a few years back in Montreal.

“He is having to cool the brakes, he is having to cool the car, he is having to lift off to do that. He is having Sebastian Vettel breathing down his neck. He cannot make a mistake. He cannot lock a wheel up.

“He is dealing with all the switch changes and all the stuff that he has got to manage. And he totally nailed it. He was the coolest guy out there today.” he added.

Horner emphasised on the fact that the engine power loss heavily impacted the break temperatures and they actually went out of control for Ricciardo. He still somehow managed to keep that car running on the track and was quick enough to beat off that Vettel challenge.

“It was unbelievable,” Horner added.

“He was not going to give this race up, this weekend. He has been quickest in every session. We lost the MGU-K 17-18 laps into the race, and that is 2.5 seconds per lap he is giving up.

“Then your brake temperatures go out of control, the fuel, tyre temperatures go up – and he just managed it like he was on a Sunday afternoon drive.

“They are telling me on the intercom that we are going to have to retire the car after one or two laps, and I said look, we are in the lead of the Monaco GP, we are keeping going.

“Moving the switches around, driving, saving fuel, saving brakes, saving tyres, asking what was going on with Max’s tyres and everything else, he drove an unbelievable race this weekend.” he concluded.

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