Horner Reveals What Caused Kvyat To Sit Out Of Race

Wesley Branton
March 22, 2016 @ 3:12 pm

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Daniil Kvyat’s Australian curse returned in 2016, as he spent the race in the garage after failing to start the race. There was talk of the car returning to the track part way through the Grand Prix so that the team could use it as a testing session, but that never happened. The Red Bull Team Principal was able to confirm the cause of Kvyat’s premature retirement.

“It’s a shame that Dany [Daniil Kvyat] wasn’t able to start the race today, he seems to be cursed here in Melbourne,” Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing Team Principal, said after the race. “He unfortunately had a CU-H failure on the power unit, but he’ll be back in Bahrain.”

The CU-H is the electronic control unit that controls the MGU-H. The MGU-H is the motor-generator unit for the turbo compressor in the power unit and is used to convert heat from the exhaust system into electrical energy that can be used to power the kinetic motor-generator unit (MGU-K). The MGU-H also controls the speed of the turbo compressor to prevent turbo lag or prevent use of the waste gate. A failure in this component of the car caused it to lose electronic power near the end of the formation lap, just short of the grid. Kvyat’s car could not be refired and he was left to be a spectator for the rest of the race.

Daniil Kvyat described the situation:

“I think Australia doesn’t seem to be the luckiest place for me so far. The car just shut itself off – I guess it didn’t want to do the race today, but we’ll be back in Bahrain and we’ll start again from there! Last year it was very hard to take, not starting the race, but this year I’m a stronger person so I’ll be OK, these things happen, that’s life and that’s racing.”

Kvyat has not had the best of luck at the Australian Grand Prix, also failing to start last season, becoming one of the many drivers that would not complete the race distance. He will have to wait for another year to give it another go at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit.