Renault boss: Red Bull bringing engine pain on themselves

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul has hit back at stinging criticism from Red Bull after Max Verstappen's retirement at the Hungarian Grand Prix, suggesting that the customer team's refusal to fit upgraded parts in their cars is the reason for the recent run of poor reliability.

Verstappen had to pull over on the fifth lap of Sunday's race at the Hungaroring due to an MGU-K failure - it was Red Bull's fourth mechanical retirement in as many races, with Daniel Ricciardo having dropped out of the German Grand Prix a week prior with engine failure, despite fitting a host of new components at Hockenheim.

Red Bull did little to hide their fury as Verstappen pulled over, the Dutchman shouting over team radio: "What a fucking joke all the fucking time with this shit!"

Speaking from the pit-wall mid-race, team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports: "We pay multi millions of pounds for these engines, for a first class or state-of-the-art product and you can see that it's quite some way below that."

However, Abiteboul turned the argument back around to Red Bull, suggesting that the works team have suffered no such issues with the same part that forced Verstappen out of the race in Budapest.

VIDEO: Verstappen's FURIOUS uncensored team radio

"We provided an improved MGU-K in Monaco, but Red Bull does not want to use it," Abiteboul is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

"They prefer to use the old one to save installing it on their car.

"But with the new MGU-K, the temperatures stay much better. We do not have problems with our cars.

"We cannot force Red Bull to use it, that's their decision."