Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Red Bull and Renault to face off on Friday

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Renault Sport F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul will face the press together on Friday afternoon.

With an ongoing war of words between the four-time constructors' champions and its engine supplier, both Horner and Abiteboul have been selected for the FIA press conference on Friday following the end of second practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Horner described the Renault power unit as "undriveable" following the Australian Grand Prix, with Helmut Marko having also slammed Renault after Daniel Ricciardo hit engine trouble during the first practice session of the season.

However, following ongoing criticism from Red Bull, Abiteboul hit back by saying the performance deficit to Mercedes comes from the power unit and chassis in equal measure, accusing designer Adrian Newey of "lies" on Tuesday.

With Renault considering a potential takeover of another team in order to increase its presence in F1 and Red Bull issuing quit threats, tensions are high between the two partners and should make for fascinating viewing on Friday.

Also in the press conference alongside Horner and Abiteboul are Franz Tost (Toro Rosso), Bob Fernley (Force India), Matthew Carter (Lotus) and Paul Hembery (Pirelli).

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.