Renault are set to employ the services of Mario Illien, which would see the Swiss engineer working on concepts to greatly improve their power unit ahead of the 2016 season.
Illien was earlier drafted in by Renault customer Red Bull to help with development, but the French manufacturer rejected his development path to instead go with its own.
That failed to deliver a major step forward – not even a tenth according to Red Bull – when it was debuted at the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend.
Therefore Renault may have finally decided that outside help may be the only way forward if they’re to catch up to Ferrari and Mercedes next season, particularly as they will likely have their own works team when the takeover of Lotus is completed.
Although Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul admitted they weren’t obligated to accept Illien’s findings should they go ahead with using him as a consultant.
“We need to use all the energy and the resources that we have available,” Abiteboul told Motorsport. “I am absolutely not precious about where the solution is coming from – what I want is the solution. Full stop.
“There is no obligation [to take Illien’s work], and there is nothing that is coming from us top down, from Red Bull. There is just a clear willingness to find a solution as quickly as possible.”
Illien is currently working out of a newly constructed facility at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory, which along with his vast experience, leads Abiteboul to believe he could provide alternative development paths Renault don’t have access to.
“Mario has access to a pool of resources that we don’t have access to right now. So in that respect, we are a bit handicapped by the lack of medium to long term visibility of our F1 programme.
“So I think it is better to use some facilities that already exist. But I also say that it is a short term fix. I am not saying it is long term plan.”
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