Renault's Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul has high hopes of a Renault Powered Team finishing on the Monza Podium for 2017.
It has been three years since Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull Renault won the 2013 Italian Grand Prix. Since then, it has been Mercedes and Ferrari who have occupied the top three steps of the Italian Round.
Monza (Also known as the Temple of Speed) is a chance where Engine Manufactures can showcase to the world of who has the most power. In the case of Renault, compared to their competitors, some believe that over the course of three years, they have been lacking in 40-80 horsepower.
The 2014 Rule Change, has placed a larger emphasis on the car's engine, making it a performance differentiator. Something which Mercedes have nailed perfectly, but Renault have yet to catch up with the German Manufactures. However the head boss of Renault is optimistic that we will see a Renault Powered Car on the 2017 Monza Podium, Abiteboul told F1i that the current engine will improve and next year will different.
“The engine has to improve and that’s our intention, that’s what we have in the pipeline. But again, we were just in Monza, it’s a power track and we are not on the podium and that’s not nice. When I say ‘we’, there is no Renault engine on the podium. Next year I want to have a Renault engine on the podium, that would be very nice.”
Renault currently have 21 Development Tokens left and earlier this year the team did category rule out any update to their 2016 Power Unit. However, Abiteboul did admit that there still could still be an update for this year. But it will not be nothing revolutionary or significant in relation to performance
"We are going to make our life easier by not having to go through the administrative burden of the fair and equitable process and use a couple of tokens. But frankly there are not going to be any revolutions to this year’s engine performance.”
F1Today believes that the new Renault Engine Update, could debut either in Singapore or Japan.
Ferrari: 0 (32 used)
Honda: 3 (29 used)
Mercedes: 6 (26 used)
Renault: 21 (11 used)
Written by Harry Shovelar
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