Renault hit power target for Melbourne

2015 F1 season

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Renault says it has reached the target for power delivery from its V6 hybrid turbo engine which it set for the first race of the season.

However director of operations Reme Taffin said they still need to improve the drive-ability of the 2015 version of their Energy F1 power unit.

“Performance-wise, we would have liked a bit more time but we’ve always been conscious of that situation following our particularly aggressive development choices,” said Taffin.

“There’s still further potential to be extracted before Melbourne, especially in terms of driveability. But, as far as the amount of power delivered is concerned, we’re definitely there.”

Taffin believes Renault can solve the problems it encountered with its two teams at the end of pre-season testing yesterday. “We experienced a little down time on the final day with an ERS problem at Red Bull and an ICE problem at Toro Rosso,” he said, “but are confident that the specification run in Melbourne will have eliminated these issues”.

He also confirmed Renault had used the tests at the Circuit de Catalunya to simulate running one engine through the equivalent of five race weekends, as it will have to do under the revised rules for this year.

“Running was the number one objective so we’re pleased to have seen one of our power units complete five grand prix cycles across Barcelona’s first and second tests,” he said.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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29 comments on “Renault hit power target for Melbourne”

  1. “We experienced a little down time on the final day with an ERS problem at Red Bull and an ICE problem at Toro Rosso,” he said

    I still feel as though RBR has a high amount of KERS/ERS/Electrical problems, and I would like to know if they experience more of these issues in the last 4 odd years than any other team, or am I just nit picking?

    1. Yeah I still feel like that whenever electric power delivery problems are mentioned it’s RB more often than not. I’m sure someone out there has the stat to back it up.

      I’m fairly sure they are the worst off of the front runners at least…

    2. In pre 2014 years, the problem was that they had split their KERS system in 2, resulting in twice as much KERS failures.

  2. He also confirmed Renault had used the tests at the Circuit de Catalunya to simulate running one engine through the equivalent of five race weekends, as it will have to do under the revised rules for this year.

    I think this will be very important this, one engine for 5 race weekends. Reliability rather than performance, will be a much more important factor this year.

    1. No it won’t be. 9 times out of 10 most teams would rather have performance over reliability. Just look at Mercedes and Ferrari last year, or Red Bull and Ferrari before that. There have been a few circumstances when reliability is more important than performace i.e. 2005. But it’s easier to make a fast car reliable than a reliable car fast.

      1. i think you are mixing words. Reliability is a factor in performance, they are not two ends of a spectrum. What Renault said is they have met their ‘power target’ which could mean a lot of things. In the end though, it matters not, it’s the power unit that can output the most energy which will win the race, most likely.

        1. –correction.

          “But, as far as the amount of power delivered is concerned, we’re definitely there.”

          delivering power can also mean quite a lot of different things. What matters most is delivering power over a whole race, and not one lap.

    2. true, but it depends on how big the performance difference is i guess. Din’t merc last year start from back of the field couple of races and finish in top 3.

  3. So, he’s really saying that they set their target too low?

    1. Maybe after seeing Mercdes’ times they thought the bar should have been higher in the 1st place. I’m pretty sure that even Ferrari under estimated how much Mercedes PUs still had in hand.

      God help the non-Mercedes powered cars.

  4. Yeah right. They are down on power if you look at the advancements the rest has made. Maybe when compared to last year they have met their own target, but the game has moved on.

  5. My bold prediction is that by the end of 2015, Red Bull will have slid down to just the 5th fastest team overall, behind Mercedes (obviously), Williams, Ferrari & McLaren. They will break up with their engine partners Renault and try another manufacturer, unsuccessfully. After that they will become a midfield team again.

    I have this feeling based on the fact that their relationship with Renault ever since the new regulation changes has been very sour. The Renault engine is apparently the weakest out of the four, and with the loss of Prodomou & Newey taking a step back, their chassis will likely not be all that great either.

    That’s just my prediction. I think that the Red Bull era is well and truly over.

    1. @kingshark:

      I think that the Red Bull era is well and truly over.

      Those are very strong words there, considering they have been the runner up last year. Are you suggesting this is where RBR is slowly going to its grave? If that is so, then DM will wrap up his toys pretty fast.

      1. Yes, personally I do.

        McLaren had a wealth of success from 1988 to 1991, similar to Red Bull from 2010-2013. McLaren won a handful of races in 1992 and 1993, and then had a dreadful and fruitless next half decade. Williams from 1992 to 1997 were even more dominant than Red Bull ever were, yet when the regulations changed they slid down the order drastically and scrapped for minor points and podiums for the next three years.

        That’s just my prediction. I think that Red Bull are in for a serious drought.

    2. Yes I agree Red Bull Honda is a possible scenario @kingshark. I think this ties in with the talk of Renault shopping for their own team again. Though I suspect FIA will be cutting Renault a lot of slack with reliability and economy upgrades.

      I don’t know how fast Red Bull will fall, if at all. They have the staff and processes and highly cooperative culture, and money. The loser in this shakeup could be McLaren, though I hope not.

      1. If Red Bull choose to go to Honda that could be very bad news for McLaren indeed.

        But are there any signs that the Honda engine is better (or rather will be in a few months) that the Reanult enginge?

        1. Its not Red Bulls choice though vvans. If they would want to get Honda, they would have to probably buyout McLarens contract.

          I think its more likely that Mateschitz would either go his own way with a new partner (he has been trying to get VW/Audi in for a long time now) or quit altogether.

        2. pretty sure McLaren have it signed with Honda that they are a “factory team”. It makes no sense to be a test bed for Honda and not cover yourself like that.

      2. I doubt Honda will want to sever their ties with McLaren so quickly, they have been doing a lot of work to integrate the two cultures together and have said that it is planned to be a long-term partnership.
        Also, I believe that most of the problems are a result of the Honda engine, rather than McLaren being at fault.
        It’s likely that McLaren’s “size zero” approach has compromised their reliability, but Honda would have agreed to have the car built in that philosophy themselves anyway as they would have had to build the engine accordingly to allow such slim packaging.

        1. Honda are only exclusive to McLaren for this year @polo @bascb @pcxmerc , then next year Mac are their ‘main focus’ and after that it’s piranha time. If Red Bull ask, even for 2016, surely Honda will supply and then whichever car does better will garner the focus, either slowly or quickly.

          http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/story/173259.html

          RBR have to be disappointed in Renault I think, still to be so far poor after a year’s work, behind Ferrari now, so if the Honda proves good once it’s working I reckon they’ll be in there.

          McLaren have to perform. Though they can of course – the 2012 Mac was super fast.

          1. @lockup Thinking about how McLaren threw away their chances in 2012 always makes my blood boil. The Red Bull was faster at certain points in the season, but overall if McLaren had sorted out their reliability and operational/pit crew problems they could have been champions. There was some plain old misfortune as well, such as Hamilton getting taken out by Hulkenberg while leading in Brazil, but overall McLaren just threw away so many points…

            I estimated that Button lost 38-42 points to bad luck and problems in 2012 and Hamilton lost a whopping 143-165 points. McLaren thus lost 181-207 points in the constructor’s.
            Hamilton ended up 91 points behind Vettel and McLaren ended up 82 points behind Red Bull, which emphasises that there was a missed opportunity.

            If you want to see how I estimated those numbers, I stuffed my word document into a pastebin (warning: it’s pretty unpleasant formatting). http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=93wzBFSd

        2. Yep @polo I agree with those points adjustments. My blood also boils with Whiting (aka Bernie) suddenly making the motive behind a dimension a legal issue and banning their floor because they didn’t technically need the tolerance in production. I know Ron makes enemies rather easily but F1’s bias against Mac over the decades is really frustrating.

          Anyway at least Sam Michael is gone now, and Whitmarsh with him. Let’s hope the team have another rocketship in them.

          Nando vs Lewis omg :)

          1. @lockup I also hope that McLaren can produce another super-quick car.
            Fernando vs. Lewis would make for a fantastic season :D

            Alonso deserves another car that will allow him to challenge for the championship, he really deserves more than “only” two championships.

    3. Personally, if they were to get a new engine supplier, I would like to see a Red Bull-BMW.

      1. Interesting stuff…hard to say though. If Honda did sell PUs to Red Bull eventually, would RBR be considered a customer and not a factory team? Since it is so much about as tight a relationship as possible between PU and engine, ideally doing everything under one roof, I’m not sure RBR would want to be a customer of Honda’s. For now I would think they are relatively content with Renault in terms of tight relationships at least, although I recognize that Horner was quite critical of them last year. If anything I too would lean toward them bringing a new entity into F1, or at least a re-visit…VW/Audi? BMW? Nissan? (Infinity tie-in).

    4. Interesting prediction, but one that is definitely possible.

      I also saw news recently of Renault not being entirely happy with their exposure in F1 with them now just supplying two teams, but both Red Bull-owned. There is a chance they might buy out an existing team and become a works team again.

      I think the Infiniti title sponsorship also runs out at the end of the year, so the Milton Keynes team could look pretty different next season if they struggle this season.

      On a side-note, if they were to switch engines I seriously doubt Honda is an option as Red Bull would want a works deal. They’d look towards a new supplier, of which I’d say VW or BMW are most likely.

    5. Hopefully you are right. Horner and his Bernie friendship are a cancer to F1 and all the influence they got threw Bernie using their winning as an excuse was annoying. Let’s not forget who broke FOTA first. Even Ferrari came after them. I never thought i would see a more entitled single minded unfair team as Ferrari but Red Bull proved me wrong.
      W…T…F! are they doing in the strategy group for examble? Who are they to get some privilege? At least the other teams there have some history in F1. Why is Red Bull given such privilege just because they are friends with Bernie?

  6. “We’ve met our goal of being under-powered for the first race of the year. Carrying on from the excellent work we did last year, Renault once again demonstrates our renown consistency. We’d like to thank our partners at Red Bull Racing for the best in class aero which will help to keep the Renault name towards the pointier end of the grid…”

    1. Gave me a good chuckle

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