19/05/2017
NEWS STORY
Cyril Abiteboul, Renault Sport Racing Managing Director: The Grand Prix de Monaco has a special place in the hearts of Formula 1 fans in general and has particular resonance for Renault. Since 2009, the event has been the nearest we have had to a French Grand Prix, and even before that we have always had a special relationship with the Principality.
As a constructor, Renault has won twice in Monaco, with Jarno Trulli in 2004 and in 2006 with Fernando Alonso. As an engine supplier, we have tasted the top step a further four times. Our expectation is not to add to this statistic in 2017, but we are making progress and we are ambitious for this new challenge.
Barcelona was a complicated weekend for us. However, we achieved Renault Sport Formula One Team's best-ever finish and the points scored meant we moved up a position in the Constructors' Championship. We were somewhat disappointed on Saturday with our qualifying positions, but we were able to make amends on Sunday with a better race pace.
Monaco presents our engineers and drivers with a unique challenge and it provides a fabulous showcase for Formula 1 to the world.
This time of year is exceptionally busy for Renault Sport Racing. Just after the disappointment of our qualifying in Barcelona, we had cause to celebrate Sebastien Buemi's victory with Renault e.dams in the Monaco ePrix. In Silverstone, three of our Renault Sport Academy drivers were in action last weekend, and they will be racing again this weekend in Pau. They have a triple-header, as they will also join us on track in Monaco.
In the GP3 Series, Renault Sport Academy member Jack Aitken started from pole in Barcelona, however his good work was undone with a technical issue. Our Development Driver, Oliver Rowland, took two podiums, whilst our Test Driver, Nicholas Latifi, was unfortunate to lose out on taking his first Formula 2 victory. Three days later, he had his first taste behind the wheel of the R.S.17 in Barcelona for the Pirelli test.
In Monaco we will start our celebrations of the forty year anniversary of Renault first entering Formula 1. We hope we can harness the force of our forty year history for a strong result this weekend.
After a successful points finish in Spain, the R.S.17 will get a taste of the most famous circuit on the Formula 1 calendar - the Circuit de Monaco. Engine Technical Director Remi Taffin shares his thoughts on the twisting, street circuit and what challenges the bumps and dips bring.
What are the challenges in Monaco?
Remi Taffin: For Monaco you need consistency, so the job of the power unit is to give the driver a consistent power delivery without too many energy recovery strategies over the course of a very busy and frenetic lap. Fortunately, Monaco is unique in the way it is driven and some of the areas you need to pay attention to for a more normal track are not so relevant. As a driver doesn't use full throttle as much as at other tracks, they can recover energy quite easily.
Historically, we would say that Monaco was hard on the engine because of the bumps and the driver maintaining high revs with the engine. We have addressed all the issues stemming from the bumps and the latest generation of engine revs lower and has a different torque curve so these areas are not as critical as before.
Ultimately, Monaco is about confidence. When a driver is confident it can make a big difference. So we do everything we can do from a power unit perspective to assist with the driver's confidence.
How would you sum up the season so far?
RT: We knew it would be a challenging start to the year - testing illustrated this - but five Grands Prix in we have finished all the races without experiencing any problems. In Spain we were able to get more from the power unit in qualifying mode. We are not subject to the same constraints as before with tokens, so we can push and develop in a different way than for the past three seasons. We are continuing with our roadmap of adding performance, balanced to the requirements of reliability.
When will we see the new generation MGU-K?
RT: We ran with a new generation MGU-K in pre-season testing and this showed us that the concept was not ready for race conditions. The potential advantage it offers relates to its weight rather than direct PU performance benefits. This new generation of MGUK will be deployed when adequate with our power unit plan. In terms of performance improvement we are looking at every area, so the potential weight advantage of a new specification MGU-K is just one factor in a bigger equation.