Audi was hit with more bad luck in Santiago after a double retirement has left Team Principal Allan McNish scratching his head about how they turn their fortunes around.
Daniel Abt was forced to retire early after he picked up suspension damage during a collision with Nick Heidfeld who apologised for the contact after the race.
Reigning champion Lucas di Grassi has yet to finish a race in his title defence after powertrain failure again hit the Brazilian driver in the second stint of the race after running in the top five.
Allan McNish was left frustrated after the events in Santiago as the former Audi factory driver knows that their car is quick, but the team are unsure how to fix their reliability issues.
“I’ve been in racing for many years: Sometimes it goes with you, and sometimes everything goes against you – the latter is certainly the case with us at the moment,” explained McNish.
“Two retirements today for different reasons is extremely disappointing. But we know that’s how it goes in racing sometimes. Daniel was unfortunately hit on lap one. Lucas drove a strong race and suddenly had no power anymore after the pit stop. We don’t know the reason yet,” added McNish.
Audi needs to resolve their reliability issues quickly as the season quickly approaches the halfway point. Otherwise, the German manufacturer may have to write off this season and begin to spend their resources preparing for season five.