Red Bull need 'miracle' to fix Ricciardo engine for qualifying

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says his team will have to “work a miracle” to fix Daniel Ricciardo’s engine after encountering a suspected turbo failure in final practice for the Chinese Grand Prix. 

Ricciardo suffered what appeared to be a significant engine failure in final practice as the Australian ground to a halt with smoke billowing from the rear of his RB14 Formula 1 car. The issue occurred in the closing stages of FP3, which finished just two hours before the start of qualifying in Shanghai. 

“I think we’ve got a suspected turbo failure, that’s what the analysis is at the moment,” Horner told Sky Sports. “Whether that’s damaged the combustion engine as well only time will tell. It certainly looks turbo orientated at the moment.

“The boys have got to work a miracle to get that turned around for qualifying now. [We need to] get the bits of shrapnel back, get the data, have a look at it and the bottom line now is it’s a big task to try and get it turned around for qualifying.”

When asked if Red Bull is getting frustrated by Renault’s issues, Horner replied: “Yeah, I mean it’s the second race in a row. We had the energy store last race, we’ve got this issue before we’ve even got into qualifying here and we’re on race three so disappointed is probably an understatement.”

Ricciardo, who was forced to move onto the second element of his control electronics and energy store components on his Renault-powered Red Bull following his retirement in last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, added his latest problem was “pretty tough” as he edged closer to a grid penalty. 

F1’s tighter restrictions for power units for 2018 mean drivers are limited to one fewer engine for the 21-race season compared to last year.