Renault Says Something Wrong at the Factory

[cosworth151]

Renault F1 engine program chief Cyril Abiteboul says that they have problems in the factory.

"On the dyno the engines are reliable, but when we come on track they are not.
 
"Obviously there is something wrong in our validation process, from dyno to track. It's just like aerodynamics, when the wind tunnel is not telling the truth; it's exactly the same in the engine world," he told F1's official website."

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/formula-one-engine-supplier-renault-says-something-wrong-factory

[Scott]

Crazy.  I bet the decibels at Viry-Chatillon are rising, even outside the dyno room.  Everyone will pile on Renault and I guess they will be out of the sport by 2017.  What a pity. 

I blame the FIA and their stupid constantly changing engine rules and Merc (mostly) for forcing them through.  They should have just left things alone with the V8's and told Merc that if they want V6's then maybe they should go and start a team in the Indycar series.  Seriously, the engine rules have been a disaster and have probably cost many many times what continuing with V8's would have.

[Irisado]

The change in the rules has at least spiced up the racing a bit through unreliability though, and made engine performance more varied, instead of them all being the same, more or less, as was previously the case.  I agree that costs are a major issue, and the restrictions on parts and the number of engines before penalties are issued is crazy, but the entire concept hasn't been a bad thing.

[John S]

I blame the FIA and their stupid constantly changing engine rules and Merc (mostly) for forcing them through.  They should have just left things alone with the V8's and told Merc that if they want V6's then maybe they should go and start a team in the Indycar series.  Seriously, the engine rules have been a disaster and have probably cost many many times what continuing with V8's would have.

Constantly changing rules, Scott?  In the main these engine regs and the timescales for less power units per season have been on the FIA's agenda since Mad Max's time in the FIA chair.

Also from memory, which can be a bit tricky I admit at my now pensioner age, Merc didn't even have a team of their own when the new engine rules were being formulated.

Furthermore Merc was having quite good success with their V8 engines in the McLaren's in the era of writing the new engine rules. I'm pretty sure the impending introduction of the new engine rules led Merc to purchase Brawn team; rather than the other way round of Merc influencing the engine rules after buying Brawn.   

[Alianora La Canta]

Constantly changing rules, Scott?  In the main these engine regs and the timescales for less power units per season have been on the FIA's agenda since Mad Max's time in the FIA chair.

Also from memory, which can be a bit tricky I admit at my now pensioner age, Merc didn't even have a team of their own when the new engine rules were being formulated.

Furthermore Merc was having quite good success with their V8 engines in the McLaren's in the era of writing the new engine rules. I'm pretty sure the impending introduction of the new engine rules led Merc to purchase Brawn team; rather than the other way round of Merc influencing the engine rules after buying Brawn.   

The notion of six-race engines by 2008 was a Mosley idea. But he was eventually persuaded that this was impossible by the engine manufacturers. The number of engines allowed this year has already been changed twice (from 4 to 5 and back again), which of course makes quite a difference because that's the difference between four-race engines and five-race engines.

These rules started getting formulated in 2004. Honda has been, come, gone and come back again (as an engine supplier) in that time. Cosworth's gone, come back again and gone. Half the people involved in the negotiation weren't there when it was signed, and it went through a bunch of changes even after "final" agreement was made in 2011.

Merc buying Brawn came after a trying time of McLaren both having a bad season in 2009 and (more importantly) wanting to re-launch its own line of road cars - something Mercedes could not accept in a customer team. Merc wanted someone to be its works team and thought Brawn was the best choice. They had a point.

[lkjohnson1950]

There is as much show as go in this rule. The difference in supplying 4 engines per car vs 6 engines per car is negligible compared to the cost of designing and developing the engine in the first place. And it hardly seems fair to penalize Red Bull for Renault's failures. A stupid rule all round. 

[Scott]

There is as much show as go in this rule. The difference in supplying 4 engines per car vs 6 engines per car is negligible compared to the cost of designing and developing the engine in the first place. And it hardly seems fair to penalize Red Bull for Renault's failures. A stupid rule all round.

 

It isn't that there isn't enough money, it just simply isn't being shared properly.