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Renault will bring their long awaited engine upgrade to Baku, according to reports. The Azerbaijani Grand Prix will take place two weeks after the Canadian Grand Prix, which occurs this approaching weekend. The original upgrade was in fact planned to be introduced in Montreal but it was delayed.
The French manufacturer is still struggling with reliability along with speed. Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko said he thought the engine upgrade wouldn't arrive until at least July, however, it now seems that Renault is settled on carrying it to Europe for the second ever race in Azerbaijan.
Despite the upgrade, there is bad news for the Renault team and its two customers - Red Bull and Toro Rosso. While it was reported the upgrade would bring three-tenths of a second in lap time, it will now only bring one-tenth according to reports.
Red Bull themselves have been waiting patiently for the upgrade as they attempt to bounce towards rivals Mercedes and Ferrari who are pulling a gap to the energy drink team. The Milton Keynes-based team will be introducing a series of car upgrades in Austria, the race after Baku, as it is the team's home event.
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (3)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
1 tenth??? That's not going to do much at all
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
1 tenth doesnt reallly say much about the quality of the upgrade. There could be more to it than raw power. The upgrade might make room for further smaller upgrades with extra times, it might make the engine more drivable (a concern I've heard some Renault team has had with the unit), it might improve the properties of the deployment, it might improve efficiency, and it might improve reliability. All of that put together could be a decent leap. This upgrade will hardly be a season changer, but it will nevertheless help the Renault teams.
Sirhenry
Posts: 759
Renault...the clowns @F1!