Sebastian Vettel was leading the opener in Bahrain before a spark plug fault on the 33rd lap cause a dramatic loss of power that saw him eventually limp home in fourth place.

It was an all too familiar story in Melbourne as, with Vettel in first place, an electrical fault saw him fly off into the gravel and out of the race, leaving the team to once again wonder what could have been.

Former world champion Lauda believes they will be made to pay for their early reliability problems.

"There must be consequences," Lauda told Bild

"Two races and two victories lost because of technical defects. Red Bull can forget the title."