Abiteboul texted Marko after 2020 engine test claim

Abiteboul responded

(GMM) More text messages have been going back and forth between Dr Helmut Marko and Cyril Abiteboul.

Renault boss Abiteboul, who shared an acrimonious relationship in the past with Red Bull's chiefs, revealed that Marko texted him when the French team tested at the Red Bull Ring recently.

"It got me some comments from Helmut, and even some text messages from Helmut, for whom I still have great affection," the Frenchman said.

But now, Marko says he was on the receiving end of a further round of texting, this time with Abiteboul as the instigator.

The text followed Marko's claim in the media that Renault had fitted 2020-spec engines to its two-year-old chassis at the pre-Austrian GP test.

"I immediately received a text from Cyril Abiteboul," the Austrian told Osterreich newspaper.

"I just reminded him that he still owes me five bottles of champagne and that he should concentrate on the essentials. Officially, they had a 2018 engine inside the car. Well, they should have."

Marko said he will be glad when the engines are finally fired up on Friday.

"There's a famous quote – 'When the flag drops, the bull**it stops'," he said. "It is high time that the racing starts again now.

"Then we will finally have times and results to talk about, rather than every exaggerated sentence."