Red Bull, Renault play down engine ruling
Red Bull are likely to lose no more than a few hundredths of a second following the ban on their controversial engine setting this week, their engine supplier Renault said on Friday.
"It's very difficult to quantify but we're talking about hundredths, not seconds or tenths of seconds," Renault's head of track operations Remi Taffin told reporters.
"We are chasing hundredths of a second and this means we have to chase somewhere else."
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, third in the Formula One championship behind Fernando Alonso and team mate Mark Webber, also dismissed any concern.
"It is much less than what people expect," he said. "Of course, if we had the choice, then we would go back to what we had in Hockenheim but it is difficult for us to measure."
He added: "There is a lot of talk but if you would know what is going on in the background then you would not be too interested in all the talking and stuff that has been printed in the last few days."
"Fortunately tomorrow there is a new newspaper, and the day after tomorrow another on, and especially on Monday, so we will focus on the race here and then try to make some good news for Monday's newspaper."
Red Bull were forced to change their engine torque mapping after the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) closed down a loophole in the regulations this week.
The new ruling, addressing a hugely complex issue, limits how much teams can change specific settings that control the amount of torque delivered by the engine in various conditions.
Red Bull were referred to the stewards over the engine torque mapping before last week's German Grand Prix. They were cleared of a breaching the regulations but the FIA made it clear in its wording of the decision that it was not happy with the situation.
