Toro Rosso has praised the gains made by engine supplier Renault, who it is working with again following a one-year spell using 2015-specification Ferrari power units.
Technical director James Key said the French manufacturer has made clear gains since the end of last year.
“Exactly where it stands in the order is impossible to say but there’s definitely a marked improvement from what we saw in the past and over last year as well.”
“And you can see that, that’s real, it’s not just a value coming out of the dyno. So from a performance point of view we’re happy with what we’ve seen so far.”
Key also said Renault has raised its game in terms of its trackside operations. “There’s definitely some big changes,” he confirmed.
“The communication, the way the operations are at the track, the speed at which they’re reacting and so on is all very positive for us.”
2017 F1 season
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Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
2nd March 2017, 12:02
Glad, that at least Renault is catching up, because Honda doesn’t seem like they know what they’re doing. They won’t have old excuses about restriction of development. This year teams will be able to develop and turn everything upside down, but Honda just lack some talent in their engine department. Why they don’t want to hire some europeans. I read Mario Illien and Renault just split, so why can’t they ask Mario for some consultation. They shouldn’t be so arrogant or just quit trying to pretend, that they can do everything by themselves. They are held back by their egos. I hope that at least Renault turns very competetive and will be equal with Ferrari and Mercedes. But for now I can’t see Honda turning competetive. It’d be better that instead of them another manufacturer would enter F1. Mclaren would be wise to at least try convincing BMW or Audi in entering F1 as their engine partner. They are european companies, that would be able to turn some heat on Mercedes and Ferrari, and for them it wouldn’t be so costly to just build engines and cooperate with Mclaren as building their own team from scratch.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd March 2017, 13:06
+1
GeeMac (@geemac)
2nd March 2017, 13:39
It isn’t arrogance from Honda, it is part of their philosophy. They go racing as a learning exercise and they prefer to go racing with staff they already have in the company, it is admirable really. Frustrating, but admirable.
Arrows98 (@arrows98)
2nd March 2017, 15:55
+1
their philosophy has it sets backs, but I’m sure it also has its advantages. I, for once, would love to work for a company that sitcks by its employees.
besides, I feel people love to jump on ‘wow, Honda suck!’ bandwagon and vastly underestimate the logistical hurdles of having their factory on a different continent: maybe this just isn’t feasible in modern f1…
Aapje (@aapje)
2nd March 2017, 19:22
The problem with new manufacturers is that coming in right now means that they will have a big disadvantage compared to the engine suppliers that have years of experience with this engine formula.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
3rd March 2017, 7:45
I am pleased to hear this, as far as I know Red Bull Racing haven’t said much about the Renault engine, which I guess isn’t a surprise because they’d much rather have the Mercedes engine.
Now that I think about it, I wonder what has happened to the two engines being made for Manor Racing? I guess as long as the engines being used this season remain the same for the next few months it won’t be a problem to sell them to Williams or Force India. On the other hand, I can see Red Bull Racing (and probably McLaren) would leap at the chance of being a Mercedes customer.