For the second straight race, Brendon Hartley has failed to see the chequered flag after being forced to retire during the Brazilian Grand Prix on Monday (NZ time).
The rookie Toro Rosso driver had completed 42 of 71 laps at Interlagos when he retired into the pit lane due to high oil consumption.
It was the Hartley's third Formula 1 race this season after joining the Italian outfit last month.
The 28-year-old's team have been let down by the Renault-powered engines in the cars which have hampered their progress.
Renault says the continuous failings are due to the way the Toro Rosso mechanical team are operating, but Toro Rosso disagrees, saying they are simply just getting supplied with bad engines.
Renault supply engines to three teams including their own, Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
Speaking to Andrew Gourdie and Jim Kayes, Formula 1 reporter Chris Medland firmly believes Renault are the ones at fault.
"At the end of the day, Renault are mainly to blame because it's their power units and their engine that is failing so often," Medland told RadioLIVE.
"The problem is that it's been unreliable all year for all three teams that Renault supplied.
"Renault sort of hinted in an interview that the way that maybe Toro Rosso is running, the engine in their car was to blame for this.
"That seemed to really fire Toro Ross up, and there was a pretty strong response this morning that came out from that team saying that it was Renault's fault and almost accusing them of potentially doing it on purpose because the two teams are actually in a very tight fight."
With the engine problems becoming a big issue, people are pointing the finger at both Hartley and his young teammate Pierre Gasly - both of whom are rookie drivers.
Medland doesn't believe you can blame Hartley or Gasly for the engines woes in the Toro Rosso machines.
"It's definitely nothing to do with the drivers.
"These are very complex engines and the way you drive them it's pretty much impossible to really damage an engine.
"You can be slow, you can crash, you can have difficulties sort of getting the best performances out of it but to actually damage it is a very difficult thing to do.
"Brendon is very experienced with some very technical engines from the World Endurance Championship in Porsche.
"I think it was just more as you get towards the end of the season, people are getting tired, emotions run high, Toro Rosso were getting a bit tired of the problems they were having."
Despite all the failing engines, Medland thinks it actually benefits Hartley in a way as he is not getting a real chance to showcase his skills in a failing car.
"In a strange way, it's almost a good scenario for Brendon because the pressure is off, the expectations are so low because the team doesn’t have a reliable car and even giving him the tools to show off what he can do.
"All he can do really is keep his head down and do what the team asks of him but he doesn't need to set the world alight in his final couple of races, he just needs to not rock the boat too much, which is exactly what he has been doing.
"I'm almost certain that he'll get a full shot next season."
Toro Rosso will be switching to Honda engines next year and will be the only Formula 1 team with the Japanese engines in their cars.
Newshub.
