The Renault Turbo V6 tested mid-2012
Renault is expected to conduct the first tests of its V6 Turbo engine during the summer of 2012, a little over a year before it debuts in F1.
The FIA has decided to implement a V6 Turbo engine in Formula 1 starting in 2014. Engine manufacturers must therefore design these new units. Developments are already underway, and while Mercedes planned to test its first V6 Turbo for F1 by the end of this year, Renault will only do so in six months.
Jean-François Caubet explained that the first tests should begin during the summer of 2012 and that afterwards the goal will be to optimize the engine while paying attention to financial costs.
“Our first V6 will be tested in mid-2012, and then it will be an intense program to refine and develop each part of the block within the allocated budgets,” said Jean-François Caubet.
The managing director of Renault Sport F1 also stated that the design of this new engine was more difficult than that of the V8 currently used in Formula 1.
The new engine blocks for 2014 will be considerably more complex to design and operate than the current engines, and it will be a huge challenge to achieve this correctly. The schedule has been established and we have also defined the different milestones.
The management of four Formula 1 teams in 2012 – Red Bull, Lotus, Caterham, and Williams – along with the development of this new V6 Turbo engine keeps the men at Viry-Châtillon busy and to cope with this workload, the French engine manufacturer has decided to recruit. Jean-François Caubet also revealed that simulations were already underway to find the best way to implement the new engine.
« We have strengthened the team to handle the intense workload, and we already have simulation and testing programs running to establish the detailed functional specifications of this new engine block and its different subsystems, » added Jean-François Caubet.
