It was made apparent for a while that peace and harmony had broken out between Red Bull Racing and Renault. However the deep divisions and recriminations will not be washed away by a shiny new ‘Tag Heuer’ badge and the promise of a Mario Illien improved internal combustion engine. Behind the scenes the PR battle lines are already being drawn up when the latest iteration of the Renault F1 power unit proves to be still way off the pace of those developed by Mercedes and Ferrari.
Adrian Newey believes the much lauded recent agreement to scrap the F1 PU development token system will neither attract new manufacturers nor succeed in its objective to allow Renault/Honda to catch up with Ferrari and Mercedes. The Red Bull design guru also tells German publication Motorsport-Total that “eye watering amounts of money” will now be blown by some but for “manufacturers like Renault – who are not willing to spend the money – the gap will become bigger and not smaller”.
Newey reveals that the F1 technical working group for the new F1 power units agreed in 2012 to progressively freeze engine development (and therefore spending) but also allow for those lagging behind to catch up. “This is simply not being done”, he observes.
Andy Cowell of Mercedes revealed at Brixworth on Friday that Mercedes power unit performance jump in 2016 will be almost as significant as that between 2014-15. Newey agrees and argues that because the PU’s are still in their infancy, the bigger the manufacturer budget, the greater the gains they will find.
If Newey is correct in his assessment of how the land currently lies in terms of F1 power unit performance, then it won’t be long before Renault are being lambasted for their lack of spending once again from the likes of Marko and Horner.
Why is the subtext from TJ13 always taking aim at RBR for their complaints about Renault, instead of Renault themselves who are giving the complainers ammunition with every passing iteration of their engine?
This is big business and RBR knows well the Renault budget long before any public commenting by them is made. RBR, knowing this budget, can do one of two things: 1) work within the constraints of the overall budget (of which theirs is a part) or 2) expand THEIR portion of the overall budget to meet what they feel are the rising monetary demands of being a top competitor in the sport. Instead, RBR’s primary spokesperson, Christian Horner, and now Adrian Newey, have created a third option: cry “foul” to the press-public and seek some sort of budgetary redress so that they are bound by neither of the first two options – particularly the second.
And for many people in the F1 media and for many fans, the primary questions are why didn’t RBR complain bitterly while they were dominating the sport and why did they push for the present system – freeze notwithstanding – under which they now complain?
you fail to to forget that Redbull has had to put up with a crap Renault engine for a decade. in the v8 era it was also behind, but the new rules pushed the Renault power further behind. after 10 years of a crap engine, don’t you think it is time they are told off to lift their game?
It was my understanding that it was Renault that actually pushed for the new regs… Even going so far as threatening to pull out if they did not get their way. RBR went into bat for Renault on the new regs solely based on what Renault had promised it could deliver… Now if I agree to purchase an item for an exorbitant amount of $$$$, because it is being advertised and sold as something that it is not then I as a consumer/customer have every right to “take the mouldy donut I was sold back to the place of purchase and throw it at the the salesman”
Having said that the whole spat could certainly have been handled better on all fronts…
This is not kiddies tiddleywinks, we are talking hundreds of millions of investment!! renault had better improve otherwise their cred will be a whole lot worse than it has been. already they are laying the groundwork for quite possibly another year of sub par engines by claiming a year or two of ‘transition’!! WTF. yes the team will be rebuilt but their engine dept is still the same as before!!!!! even rene taffin is agreeing with marko?
No suprise at all. IMHO RBR and Renault are likely to be behind McLaren this year and probably will have trouble with Torro Rosso.
Lucky for RBR that they are developing their own Illien PU in the secret building 9
This entire, misdirected (mfg) approach to a powertrain has not only driven operating budgets significantly higher, but dramatically reduced the thrill of the F1 show, driving fans to the exits in massive (ratings down 1/3) numbers in the process. The powers to be had better produce the promised, ‘greatly improved’ show in 2017, or the already fading sponsorship dollars will begin to vanish with the wind. The point being, it is hard to focus on 2016 with the future of the sport looking so fuzzy…
Could be could be, but the developed technology will soon be found in a boring new Renault 0.8 3 cyl. turbo Hybrid family car near you….. That makes it all better…
I don’t think f1 has helped push hybrid technology at all, if any sort has it is WEC, which is fasr more advanced technically then f1. f1 whould ditch these engine and bring back competition and make the sport a spectacle again.
Just to put to bed all those rubbish rumours you read on here about RBR running a different spec engine and having mystical engine factories blah blah, here is a quote from Cyril himself
“If getting full support means getting the same engine as us, and the same upgrade as us, then yes, absolutely [that will happen]. They will have exactly the same. We have an obligation from the regulations to supply exactly the same equipment.”
“If we have an upgrade, they also have an upgrade. To be honest it’s great we will have another team that will be using the same equipment as us.”