Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed the criticism often aimed at Renault was simply about trying to get a "reaction".
The two parties endured a fraught final five years together in the hybrid era, as the French manufacturer struggled to produce a power unit that could compete with Mercedes and Ferrari.
Relations first broke down in 2015, when Red Bull tried to change suppliers but ultimately found no willing alternatives.
And asked about comments made by designer Adrian Newey recently, who suggested the team pushed for Renault to invest more or leave, Horner offered the backstory.
"I think what he is referring to is actually back in 2015, where we’d had several conversations, we’d been to Paris, we’d seen Carlos Ghosn and we’d presented what our concerns were," he explained.
"By 2015, when the engine was arguably worse than it was in 2014, the frustration boiled over to the point that it was like ‘OK, if we are more open about what our frustrations are, maybe it will force a reaction’. It didn’t!"
Sitting next to Horner was Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul, who revealed at that time, he was just stepping back in at the company.
"So Cyril came back into the full brunt of it," the Red Bull chief continued. "You were a customer the year before!
"So yeah, it was one of those things that you try every mechanism that you can to try to generate competitiveness.
"At that time it was felt that maybe Renault couldn’t possibly afford the embarrassment of these engines not being competitive and not being reliable and not delivering, but yeah, unfortunately, it didn’t work."
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Having had so many back and forth squabbles in recent years, naturally, Abiteboul was asked for his side of the story.
"How to respond? It was very good until the last word – it didn’t work," he admitted.
"One thing we can give credit to Christian and Red Bull is that they are fantastic at communication strategy and communication is part of this world, it’s part of Formula 1, it’s part of your strategy and your tactics.
"It’s not the first team and it’s not the last team to use all the weaponry of this world, and frankly you guys, to influence what is going on. I was reading yesterday that Max is happy to take an engine penalty – amazing!" Abiteboul smiled.
"You know, that’s part of this world, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact, and I would concur with Christian in relation to that, our engine was not at the required level in 2014 and 2015. There are mitigating circumstances.
"You know, we were extremely happy and Renault has contributed to making Red Bull what it is today by winning four championships in a row – from a financial perspective with sponsors, from a technology perspective with talent, recruitment – Red Bull is what it is today thanks also to Renault. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say that.
"But then, later on, indeed we lost a little bit the momentum and sight of what needed to be done for 2014 regulations. The rest is history and we’ll see what the future is holding."
