Genuine end-of-season updates for Renault
In a delicate situation, Red Bull and Toro Rosso should not be able to count on a greatly improved engine in Austria. But according to Autosprint, the French engine manufacturer could deliver a competitive engine three races before the end of the season.
In Canada, last Sunday, Toro Rosso did not score any points. Despite good qualifying sessions, the Renault engine of the Italian team was unable to deliver the performance required by the demands of the Quebec track.
Yet in the final laps of the race, Carlos Sainz managed to get ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in a car supposedly superior to the Toro Rosso: « With what we had, we couldn’t do much more. We finished ahead of a Red Bull, which was our goal », recalled the Spanish driver. « We try to be the fastest on the many straights, like in Canada, but we can’t manage because we lack speed », he then summarized to Marca.
For the Austrian Grand Prix, which, with its long straights, also highlights engine power, Renault should bring some new improvements to gain performance and solve the final reliability issues. Nevertheless, the bulk of the French manufacturer’s twelve tokens should only be used at the end of the season.
Indeed, according to Autosprint, the implementation of a new engine might take place three races before the end: this would be a strategy for Renault to still catch up on their delay in 2016. Christian Horner was recently grumbling about the time needed for engine updates: « What’s frustrating with the power unit is that the response times are simply too long. They [Renault] are going to conduct a series of important tests in the next two weeks on the side of Viry-Châtillon. The upcoming two weeks are important weeks ».
