Gloves off as Renault hits back at Red Bull

Fernando Alonso, the Formula One racing driver who was cleared this morning to drive in Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix after his pre-season accident, is scheduled to face the press later today but the Spaniard’s appearance isn't the hottest ticket in town.

That comes on Friday, when Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and Renault's Cyril Abiteboul are scheduled to appear side by side at a press conference.

Normally two such figures wouldn't elicit much excitement from the world's media, but that was before the extraordinary comments made by Abiteboul in an interview with France's Auto Hebdo in which he accused Red Bull of lying.

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Abiteboul was responding to statements made by Horner and Adrian Newey, Red Bull's chief technical officer, in the wake of the team’s disastrous showing in the Australian Grand Prix nearly a fortnight ago, when Daniil Kvyat's car broke down on the formation lap with gearbox failure and teammate Daniel Ricciardo was lapped by eventual winner Lewis Hamilton.

Describing Renault, Red Bull's engine supplier, as "a bit of a mess", Horner added: "It's been a very tough weekend for Renault. I mean the engine is just quite undriveable. You can see and hear that from the comments the drivers are making."

Newey then continued the attack. "It's very frustrating that we've been pushed into a position where we've got an engine which is quite a long way behind, with all sorts of failings," he told The Guardian. "Mercedes have done such a good job, Ferrari are now doing a better job and Renault haven't got it together."

In venting their frustration at Renault, Red Bull are pinning the blame for their poor start to the F1 season on the company's inability to react with the same speed as their competitors to last year's rule change that heralded the introduction of the 1.6-litre V6 turbo-charged power unit.

Abiteboul has now hit back at Red Bull. He told Auto Hebdo: "It's difficult to have a partner who lies. Adrian is a charming man and an engineer without parallel, but he's spent his life criticising engine partners. He's too old to change his ways."

Now Abiteboul and Horner are due to face the press tomorrow, along with Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost. His team also have Renault engines but haven't encountered the problems that have so frustrated Red Bull in the first few weeks of the season.

At least Abiteboul has retained his sense of humour in the face of the public slanging match, posting a message on Twitter that read: "Packing up to Malaysia. Race (round?) 2." It was accompanied by a photo of a pair of boxing gloves.

The latest figure from Formula One to become embroiled in the engine row is Max Mosley, the former president of the FIA. In an interview with The Times, he showed little sympathy for Red Bull, saying: "They all signed up to this and they have to live with it. The whole thing about teams complaining about domination is very much pots and kettles. They never complain about domination when they are dominating, just when they are on the wrong end of what is happening."