'Ironic' that Renault are failing Ricciardo - Horner

Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes it is "ironic" that Renault's current engine components are continually failing for Daniel Ricciardo, given the fact that the Australian is set to leave Red Bull for the works team of the French manufacturer next season.

During the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, Ricciardo was forced to retire due to a failure with the Energy Store component of his Red Bull, and was so frustrated at the DNF he punched a hole in the wall after leaving the track.

The engines for the team are currently provided by Renault, and with Ricciardo joining them in 2019, Horner is surprised they aren't doing more to help their new recruit.

"You can't blame him, the frustration that is in him," Horner said of Ricciardo.

"What's ironic is it's always on his car. It was the other way round last year with Max but as Renault's premier driver I think you wouldn't expect these issues to be happening.

"From a team point of view, all we want to do is finish the year on a high with him and have a chance to celebrate the time that he has been with us. It's just unfortunate that these things keep happening."

Special one y’all ???? pic.twitter.com/4lNOUhbJmD — Daniel Ricciardo (@danielricciardo) 19 October 2018

Horner went on to detail some of the power unit shortcomings which his driver has suffered from, saying he totally understands the frustration being felt.

"There must be frustrations obviously within him, with the issues that are happening he's knows it's not the team issue, he knows it's nothing that we've done and he can't get his head around why it keeps happening to him. It was a throttle linkage in Japan, a battery here, it's hugely frustrating for him," the Red Bull team principal added.

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