Renault Sport have identified a faulty piston as the cause for Pastor Maldonado’s engine failure in Malaysia a fortnight ago.
The Williams driver was running tenth but had to retire with just two laps remaining after the Renault engine in his FW34 gave up on him.
Rémi Taffin, head of track operations for Renault Sport, says they used the time between the two races to investigate the matter, finally pinpointing a faulty piston as the cause.
“We used the intervening time between Malaysia and China to thoroughly investigate the engine failure we had on Pastor’s car in Malaysia and quickly identified it as a piston failure.”
Taffin added that safeguards will be put in place to ensure a reccurence doesn’t happen to any of its customers which include Williams, Red Bull, Lotus and Caterham.
“As a result we are looking to put in place safeguards to prevent it happening again to Williams or our other clients.”
