'Fuel consumption could be RBR's problem'

Red Bull's RB6 could be a fuel-guzzling machine, according to Ron Dennis, who doubts it was a spark plug that ruined Seb Vettel's Bahrain race.

The season-opening Bahrain GP looked to a sure victory for Vettel, who claimed pole position before storming away from the chasing pack.

However, victory was snatched away when he suffered a sudden loss of power that eventually saw him fall to fourth place behind the Ferraris and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Initially it was assumed that the problem was caused by a broken exhaust while Red Bull later revealed that it was in fact a faulty spark plug that led to Vettel's demise.

However, former McLaren team boss Dennis isn't so sure about that.

"The lap times dropped so rapidly that one can imagine the electronic control unit (ECU) switching to a conservative programme to save fuel," ESPN reports Dennis as having said.

"The problem with the Red Bull could be design. It could be the fuel tank is too small, or the fuel consumption is higher than they expected."

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