Carlos Sainz Jnr has praised the progress Renault has made with its new power unit for the 2019 F1 season.
The McLaren driver, who was part of Renault’s works team last year and has used Renault power in four of his five seasons to date, said he can “feel a change” from the new Renault E-Tech 19 power unit. “I feel a step forward, a step in the right direction,” said Sainz.“I still think we are a bit behind the Ferrari and the Mercedes engines. But it definitely feels like we have something to fight with now, finally.
“I think I’ve done four years in Formula 1. Those four years I’ve been 10kph down in all the straights. So finally to be turning up to Melbourne and being just 2 or 3kph down on the top teams is a really, really encouraging scenario.
“They seem to have clear ideas of how to develop the engine during the year so that’s some positive vibes also. But I would praise Renault in that sense because it finally seems like they’ve done the step that we were needing three years ago.”
Sainz qualified 18th for the first race of the season after being held up by Robert Kubica on his final lap in Q1. He said he lost a few tenths of a second due to a problem with his power unit on his first run.
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2019 Australian Grand Prix qualifying maximum speeds
| Pos | Driver | Car | Engine | Speed (kph/mph) | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | Mercedes | 322.5 (200.4) | |
| 2 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 322.4 (200.3) | -0.1 |
| 3 | Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso | Honda | 322.3 (200.3) | -0.2 |
| 4 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | Honda | 321.3 (199.6) | -1.2 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | Renault | 320.8 (199.3) | -1.7 |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 320.8 (199.3) | -1.7 |
| 7 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | Mercedes | 320.0 (198.8) | -2.5 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | Mercedes | 319.7 (198.7) | -2.8 |
| 9 | Lando Norris | McLaren | Renault | 319.6 (198.6) | -2.9 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | Renault | 319.3 (198.4) | -3.2 |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 319.0 (198.2) | -3.5 |
| 12 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | Honda | 317.8 (197.5) | -4.7 |
| 13 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | Ferrari | 317.7 (197.4) | -4.8 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | Ferrari | 316.5 (196.7) | -6.0 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | Renault | 316.4 (196.6) | -6.1 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | Honda | 316.1 (196.4) | -6.4 |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | Ferrari | 316.0 (196.4) | -6.5 |
| 18 | George Russell | Williams | Mercedes | 316.0 (196.4) | -6.5 |
| 19 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | Ferrari | 315.9 (196.3) | -6.6 |
| 20 | Robert Kubica | Williams | Mercedes | 314.6 (195.5) | -7.9 |
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2019 F1 season
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bosyber (@bosyber)
16th March 2019, 14:11
Well, that’s a nice way to praise them! Not saying he’s wrong, as he says he drove with their engine for four years, so he surely can judge it. Still glad to hear it for Renaults sake and for McLaren too.
ColdFly (@)
16th March 2019, 14:26
Glad they finally have the engine close to where it needs to be.
And purely based on the speed trap data it seems that Honda has joined them as well.
Now just keep the PU specifications unchanged for a decade so we don’t waste money, and all 4 can try to optimise from this base.
erikje
16th March 2019, 14:40
Yep they found 50bhp said abiteboul. A pity Renault did not survived q1.
Probably lost the 50bhp somewhere..
MaliceCooper
16th March 2019, 14:40
Now we can fight! (for speedtrap bragging rights)
Gio
16th March 2019, 15:02
Ironically, three years ago was the one year SAI didn’t drive a REN engine, but a FER instead.
Francorchamps (@francorchamps17)
16th March 2019, 16:02
Not that I like him a lot but I wish Alonso would be driving for McLaren to see what he could do in that car. How likely is it for him to return if McLaren shows great form?
Todfod (@todfod)
16th March 2019, 18:22
I think we might see him pop up for a few testing sessions this season. He’s got to stay race fit for the Indy 500 as well ;)
BlueChris (@bluechris)
16th March 2019, 16:38
This speed trap results so another thing, the Ferrari problem. They seem to have put bigger downforce in the car but simultaneously vettel moans for low and medium speed cornering.
I hope they will find the solution soon.
wayne
16th March 2019, 18:26
nonsense its good alonso is gone. a dark cloud followed him where ever he went.
socksolid (@socksolid)
16th March 2019, 20:06
Along with top speeds it would be great to see sector times. In australia the 2nd sector has just two corners and that is where verstappen was most further away with almost 0.4s down to mercedes. The second sector being the engine sector.. In the first and third sector which are more about downforce and less about engine verstappen was about 0.2-0.3s away from mercedes. The second sector is also the shortest (21s) whereas the last sector (32s) is the longest which makes verstappen’s biggest time loss in the shortest engine sector two even more significant.
Clearly there is a power deficit and with less power you have to run less downforce which also means red bull doesn’t have as much downforce as mercedes in the first and last sector. That being said verstappen was just 0.2 off in the longest last sector although the drs sector must have helped.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
16th March 2019, 21:31
Good to see that it looks like Renault may have norrowed the power gap to Merc / Ferrari. A better aero package could be playing a part in McLarens increased speeds as well.
I think Renault will continue to develop and refine the car, we will see some solid improvements and maybe a ‘shock result’ or two towards the end of the yr.
But as always we will see.
Markos
16th March 2019, 21:43
McLaren also did a step they should have done 3 years ago.
In fact, they even stepped over the Renault factory team.