Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has called on Renault to get their act together and help save his organisation’s season.

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Horner was left fuming following the opening race in Australia on Sunday after Red Bull found themselves severely handicapped by power-unit supplier Renault over the course of the weekend.

Initially, the Milton Keynes based marque were forced to change the power unit on Daniel Ricciardo’s car in between practice sessions on Friday due to a problem with the engine.

Come the race, further embarrassment followed as Daniil Kvyat, on his debut for the team following his promotion last year from Toro Rosso, retired on the formation lap with a suspected gearbox failure.

Horner has already called on the FIA to introduce equalisation rules as he fears Mercedes will continue to dominate. More pertinently, though, Horner knows Renault have to up their game otherwise the rest of the campaign will be a washout.

He said: “Renault need to have a clear vision and they need it quickly. You can see Ferrari have made a good step forward, whereas Renault at this stage appear to have made a retrograde step.

“It’s frustrating, we are effectively further back than we were in Abu Dhabi in both power and driveability. It means we haven’t seen the potential of our car yet because it’s masked by the engine issues we have.”

As to what action will be required over the coming weeks, Horner added: “First, we have to understand what the problem is in order to address it. Until Renault get to the bottom of what the issues are they are very difficult to address.”