Renault aiming for ‘one high impact upgrade’ this year

Renault is planning on spending the majority, if not all, of its 12 development tokens in one massive upgrade which it hopes will provide a big performance boost.

The French manufacturer has chosen to focus on reliability after a spate of failures which has prompted much criticism from customer Red Bull.

Therefore it has yet to spend any of its 12 remaining tokens, despite a clear deficit to pace setter Mercedes, with just nine races remaining.

Red Bull and Toro Rosso will have to wait a little longer though, as Renault aren’t planning an upgrade until October, but when it arrives, they’re hopeful it will make a major and visible difference.

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“We will try to do as much as we can in one go to do the big step,” director of operations Remi Taffin told Motorsport.

“It is not going to [come at] Spa, I guess, not Monza – maybe it will be Singapore or Russia or the race after. Whether it is Russia or not, it will be to have a proper improvement, something you can clearly see with the lap time.”

However Taffin is keeping expectations in check, adding that their ‘big’ upgrade won’t suddenly see them matching Mercedes’ pace.

“I can definitely say we will not be as powerful – I don’t think we will have a better engine than Mercedes by the end of the season, but that is not the aim,” he added.

“We know where we are, we know where we want to be next season for example, and this step we want to make later in the season is part of the plan to recover. You have to be cautious and organised whether and where and when you want to close that gap.”