Newey: Why we chose Renault engines

[davewilson]

Red Bull Racing chose Renault engines to replace Ferrari because of the French manufacturers' competitive approach to supplying customer teams, according to star designer Adrian Newey.

Newey, who is chiefly responsible for the new RB3 and who whose cars collected nine world titles with Renault power in the 1990s, said Red Bull's decision to switch to the French engine was motivated by the team's desire to enjoy a closer development relationship with its engine supplier.

And despite the fact that Renault is also a double world champion with its own team, Newey claims the manufacturer's unique philosophy to push boundaries with its partners was a key factor.   
 
"As far as the choice of engine is concerned, last year Ferrari did a very good job of supplying us as a customer, and it was a fairly simple relationship: we paid them money and they gave us an engine," he said.

"And that was essentially the relationship.
 
"The great attraction to me about Renault is that it’s built on a fundamentally different cornerstone."
 
Newey claims that Renault's relationship with Red Bull is not motivated by profit, but rather because of the development benefits of having two front-running teams gathering data on the homologated V8 RS27 units.

"Renault are not supplying us engines for profit, they’re doing it – at best – at cost," he confirmed.
 
"They’re doing it because they want more units out in the field so that they can learn about the performance and reliability of the engine.
 
"And that puts a fundamentally different tone on the relationship, and one which I’m very happy with.
 
"Having worked with the Renault engineers back in the Nineties, many of the faces are still the same," he added.
 
"I was very impressed then with the way that they were able to treat two different teams – Williams and either Ligier or Benetton in those days – and that philosophy has remained."
 
And despite new rules introduced for 2007 to freeze engine development, Newey still believes there are benefits to be gained from two separate teams using the same engine.
 
"Engine development in the hardware sense is obviously restricted with the frozen regulations, but there’s still an awful lot in the way the engine is operated that is crucially important, and that’s where I think our relationship with Renault will pay dividends," he explained.
 
According to Renault, the relationship is an opportunity to make the most of the new regulations.

"Inevitably in a time when the engine development activity is going to be less, it’s an opportune moment," said Renault's engine chief Rob White.
 
"It means we can reallocate people internally to this activity and Red Bull get the benefit of experienced hands from Renault without us having to do anything contrived to make that happen."

The Stig