Renault: New engine more powerful but less reliable
- Published on 29 Aug 2018 09:34
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Renault says its new engine will bring a significant upgrade in power at the cost of being less reliable. Renault will have the 'spec C' engine available to them at this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, however Red Bull is the only team scheduled to run it.
Daniel Ricciardo will have the engine fitted to his car for Friday which will result in a grid penalty. Red Bull has said that it will study the information on Friday and then decide whether or not Max Verstappen will also use it for the rest of the weekend.
Remi Taffin, the team’s engine technical director, described the 'Spec C' engine as "an evolution of the current B Spec engine” which is “significantly more powerful” than its predecessor.
"Conversely, it’s possibly not as reliable as the current generation, hence the different choices made by each team," he added. "Depending on fuel used, the power gain is in the order of 0.3s per lap in qualifying on a circuit like Monza, which is a substantial step forward.”
When asked why only Red Bull is set to have the first use, Taffin said: "Because they are in a position to prioritise performance without having to worry about those behind them in the championship. For our part and McLaren, we will not be using this specification, because reliability and consistency are the essential assets to reach our end-of-season goals.”
However, the current specification of MGU-K is only being used by Renault: “McLaren and Red Bull Racing did not want to make the needed changes for its integration,” said Taffin. “They have opted to take and assume this clearly identified reliability risk.”
Fergal Walsh
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Replies (15)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Thats some Apple level customer support there, Renault.
F1_IS_Dead
Posts: 123
0.3s - wow. Now they only need to find one second.
NEXT SPARE VAMP
Posts: 1,874
I'm getting sick and tired of Abitebullshit!
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Just getting?
boudy
Posts: 1,168
PU upgrade so good that even the factory team does not want to take it. If the engine isn't ready then it shouldn't be offered. What a load of nonsense.
xoya
Posts: 583
Judging by your comment, you didn't read the whole article.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Nope read it all; would Ferrari or Mercedes do such an thing? Already making excuses for an PU that's going to fail. Just don't understand the thinking and the separation of the two; looks like they built an unit that's not quite got the endurance so they are still flogging it under the guise of an performance increase.
f1ski
Posts: 726
HMMM less reliable = least reliable. I guess this is a reflection of their road cars as well.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
And I was wondering if it could get any worse.
Exqiu
Posts: 14
I'm sorry, but 0,3s gain over the old spec PU on a circuit like Monza is not significant :)). 0,3s gain from the PU, on lets say a less power sensitive circuit like Monaco, is a significant gain.
Ram Samartha
Posts: 1,172
Not quite sure how you came up with that. I didn't see anywhere that it was said they would have a .3 second gain in Monaco. A third of a second is very significant at Monza. Watch how many times are within that .3 of a second over the course of the weekend, especially in the midfield. It normally would be significant, but when you're running .75-1.5 seconds a lap slower it doesn't really make that much of a difference. At Monaco we saw those cars that are .75+ of a second faster on most tracks getting beat by the Red Bulls that were running the less powerful engines.
Exqiu
Posts: 14
I threw Monaco as an example. If you are faster at a non power sensitive track la Monza by 0.3 just from the PU only, then it will worth a hell of a lot more at a power hungry track.
That was the analogy
Exqiu
Posts: 14
I meant to say “like Monaco” instead of “la Monza”, sorry.
Bhurt
Posts: 320
So a double DNF for Red Bull then.
Bhurt
Posts: 320
Credit where credit is due. Renault built an engine that almost got Ricciardo out of the pitlane before failing.