Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull was struck with MGU-K failure at Monaco Grand Prix, which robbed him of 25% of the car power.
Ricciardo faced the problem in his first one-third of the race, when he radioed his team, “I’m losing power and losing gear sync.” This allowed Sebastian Vettel to close the gap, but Ricciardo handled the situation and managed his position.
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, shared the details regarding technical problem that Ricciardio faced during the race.
“He has lost about 25% of the power of the engine,” Horner told 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.”
The recovery system MGU-K is able to recover about 162bhp power from kinetic energy. The failure of MGU-K robbed power share that is recovered from system. It also risks over heating because rear brakes has to work harder to produce more resistance which is normally provided by MGU-K system.
Ricciardo thought it was over
Ricciardo said, “I went on the throttle and had what felt like half the power”.
“I expected my race to be over in a few corners,” he added. “After a few laps I was stressing out and the team said ‘this is you for the rest of the race now’.
“I still don’t really know how we did it, obviously it helps that the track’s so difficult to overtake.”
Horner revealed about Ricciardo’s early retirement, which was averted because of the lead that he had.
“It was unbelievable. He was not going to give this race up, this weekend. He has been quickest in every session,” Horner added.
“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 [consumption], 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.”
