Renault offers a major engine upgrade to Ricciardo
Eager to shine on French soil, the Renault Sport team has done everything to accelerate the development of an engine evolution named "Spec-B" designed to optimize their competitiveness. It will be in place throughout the weekend at Le Castellet, only on Daniel Ricciardo's car.
After a great performance in Montreal, the Renault team is clearly bouncing back after a difficult start to the season. Investing heavily in development, this weekend on French soil sees the French manufacturer unveiling the latest evolution of its power unit named “Spec-B.”
Finalized until the last moments by the Viry-Châtillon team, the procedure is clearly anticipated but calculated.
Outside of the initial plans, it is clear that Renault put pressure on the Renault Sport factory staff to maximize the chances of results at Castellet.
NEWS 🛠: We will introduce a new Spec B ICE this weekend on Daniel’s car. This ICE represents a good step forward on performance. Nico will take his new engine at a future race, but as he will incur a penalty for exceeding the three ICEs permitted per year, […] pic.twitter.com/aa7PasQFOq
— Renault F1 Team (@RenaultF1Team) 21 juin 2019
Applied only to Ricciardo’s single-seater, the Australian will thus be the sole representative of this major new evolution of the Renault engine block, with a maximum of points on the line Sunday night.
Because beyond reliability, this new internal combustion engine represents a good step forward in terms of performance, indicates Cyril Abitboul.
It should be noted that the decision to equip only the Australian is clearly deliberate due to the penalties incurred by this procedure. In fact, Renault had the option to provide the “Spec-B” to both its drivers, but that would have resulted in a grid penalty. The head of Renault Sport specifies that Nico Hülkenberg will have his update at another Grand Prix because we don’t want it to be in France for our national Grand Prix.
Note that just like Nico Hülkenberg, McLaren, a customer team of Renault Sport for engines, does not have this upgrade for the French Grand Prix.
In addition to the slight changes made to the aerodynamics and chassis, Renault continues its intensive development and clearly takes the reins of its forward momentum, desired and applied since its return to F1.
The Australian will therefore have strong pressure on his shoulders from the entire Renault Sport team and will have to confirm the competitiveness of this new engine evolution.
From our special correspondent in Castellet
