McLaren happy with "smooth" integration of Renault power unit
- Published on 23 Dec 2017 16:20
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- By: Fergal Walsh
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has expressed delight over the team's integration of the Renault power unit. In September, the Woking-based squad announced that it would be separating from Honda at the end of the season.
After three year's of difficult results, McLaren called it time with the Japanese manufacturer and struck a deal with Renault. There were initial worries over the time that would be lost due to the transition, with the team believing it would set them back two weeks.
However, Boullier says that the Renault crossover has been smooth, with the primary focus now being on finding performance: "It went very smoothly," Boullier told RACER. "We maybe took a hit of two weeks at the most, but that’s very small and recoverable.
"[The challenge of integration] is going to be no bigger than it was with Honda. Renault is used to working with several teams, so they are very well organized for this and to be honest with you, it’s done today. All the engine and chassis designs are well integrated and now it’s just about car performance development."
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Replies (12)
Login to replyBarron
Posts: 625
Are you serious? ( is he serious?) No, seriously, it’s never going to be as easy as that Eric. Do you take us for fools? No, please don’t answer that..?...
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Lets hope he is correct. I do however suspect he is suffering from a case of the "McLaren boss brain parasite".
krommenaas
Posts: 155
Since it's already done, he knows better than you how hard or easy it was.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Good news for them. It'll be interesting to see if we'll be able to spot the size difference between the Honda and the Renault units.
renaultFanF1
Posts: 80
It's just one bad decision after another. It will be a long time until we see McLaren on the podium again
f1ski
Posts: 726
i see they still have honda on their test mule!!!
krommenaas
Posts: 155
That's just a stock picture.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
... We will see. The two weeks figure seems low. When redbull talked about getting an Mercedes pu they stated way more time. Considering that the Renault is the biggest size engine they must have had issues with redesigning. Would be a nightmare if Toro Rosso are on the same level.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It all depends on how far you've come on various components. While Toro Rosso already had begun to design their chassis around the Renault package, Im sure McLaren had intentionally left that bit open, in case a switch would come around, and them vetoing the sharkfin implies that they didnt have one on their 2018 car to begin with, meaning they saved time on that bit aswell. But despite what Boullier is saying two weeks is alot of time, especially in F1.
ringo
Posts: 3,633
you can fit everything but the balance always came out when you race for real...
if you se RB with there data in simulation they had hard time first 6 month even the Engine also didnt give perfomance :)
Bhurt
Posts: 320
Fake news.
boudy
Posts: 1,168
Actually not a lot was made about the banning of the shark-fin. I makes sense for McLaren to de-stable the aero design around the back of the car since they would have had to redesign this anyway because of the change in PU. By forcing the issue of removal they force the other teams to redesign. And that makes absolute sense in a competitive world as F1.