Red Bull says Max Verstappen’s slow start to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was caused by his Renault engine going into a “safe mode” due to overheating.
Red Bull believes a long wait for the lights to go out on the grid played a role as Verstappen’s Renault engine temperatures rose beyond the limit and triggered an extra ‘safe mode’ installed by the French manufacturer to help combat reliability issues.
“The launch was good but then the engine went into like a safety programme and I had it again on the re-start afterwards,” Max Verstappen explained.

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