Renault: ‘We should be okay in Bahrain now’

Renault are now confident that the problems which plagued their new power unit during the opening test in Jerez are now behind them.

The French supplier endured a nightmare after its customers could only complete minimal running over the four days, with its main customer, Red Bull, able to complete just 21 laps.

Remi Taffin, head of trackside operations, is however optimistic that then changes they’ve made “should” allow them to enjoy relatively problem-free running at the next test in Bahrain.

“We were facing hardware issues, and consequently also software issues,” he is quoted as saying. “We had good [hardware] upgrades that we could test either on the dyno or on track as we had two filming days [with Lotus and Toro Rosso] and everything worked as expected.

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“The next chapter was obviously software. In the first test, we had some poor driveability on track that was mainly traced to either boost control and calibration issues which we have taken on for the last two weeks on the dyno and we have improved our level.

“We are now still a bit behind our initial schedule but we now have done what we would normally have done in the first test. So we should be okay in Bahrain.”

Taffin laughed off suggestions that Renault were ‘months’ behind rivals Mercedes and Ferrari.

“We are still behind schedule, but it’s not a question of months,” he stated.

“I think we are at least where we would have thought to be for the first test so maybe we are now three weeks behind and we are on a plan to recover.”