Renault - 2012 alternator gremlin not returned

Renault R26 (2006)

Red Bull designer Adrian Newey this week said he didn't know if the team's alternator problems of 2012 have now resurfaced.

After Mark Webber's retirement in India, obvious questions were being asked about whether the same constant problems of last year had come back.

"The problem with Mark had nothing to do with the events of 2012," engine supplier Renault's Remi Taffin told Auto Motor und Sport.

He said the exact cause is not yet known.

"Either the alternator came from a faulty series, or there was a problem with the installation," he added.

Taffin said Webber's Renault engine mercifully survived the problem. But the V8 unit in Lotus driver Romain Grosjean's car was not so lucky.

Grosjean had a storming drive to the podium in India, but Auto Motor und Sport said that if the race had been two laps longer, the Frenchman would have retired as the engine was losing air.

Red Bull's Webber, meanwhile, laughed with resignation at his retirement last week in India, and shrugged on Thursday when contemplating his long run of bad luck.

"A lot of results have slipped through the net, but that's the way it's been, for whatever reason," he said.

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