Renault’s recruitment of a big name in Daniel Ricciardo was supposed to launch the next step of its Formula 1 project. Instead it is not even in the top half of the championship. Motorsport Week looks at a disappointing campaign for Renault.
High point: Genuine pace in Canada
Low point: Huge missed opportunity in Germany
Formula 1’s top three teams hold a substantial advantage in the current era but Renault achieved its goal of moving to the front of the midfield in 2018, in spite of numerous roadblocks and setbacks, whether triggered by driver errors or reliability blunders. Renault promised improvements for 2019 and revealed during pre-season testing that the “high targets” it had set for its power unit, a weakness throughout the hybrid generation, had been met. New recruit Ricciardo outlined that Renault’s objective was to “be fourth or better, but it is really to try and hone in on that gap to the top three. It’s not going to happen overnight, but absolutely the target this year is to close it in, close it in, and just try to develop the car.” That has failed to materialise.
At this stage last year Renault had 82 points. It currently has 39. It has failed to score in half of the races. It is only P6 overall. What has gone wrong?
The pure data shows that Renault has made year-on-year gains, its R.S.19 running on average at 101.929 per cent of the ideal 100.000 'super time' compared to the R.S.18’s 102.025. But that is not good enough for a 12-month period in which it has invested heavily; it remains slower than Haas, has been vaulted by customer team McLaren, and is only marginally faster than Alfa Romeo and Toro Rosso. In fact, it is McLaren’s gains, with the same power unit, that has highlighted Renault’s malaise. A pre-season nod from a data-laden source had noted that Renault had only the ninth-best chassis, which at the time seemed improbable, but has gradually looked more convincing as the year has developed.
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Renault’s opening four events swayed from the miserable to the disastrous. A late double failure in Bahrain cost it a double points finish while in Azerbaijan the R.S.19 simply lacked any connection to the tarmac. “I didn’t feel the love and the harmony between the car and myself,” said a downcast Hulkenberg after qualifying faster only than the Williams at Baku. Renault had cited in-season development as an area to improve but 2019 has been a repeat of past stagnation.
A sizeable update package, along with an accelerated introduction of the more powerful B-Spec engine, arrived for France, but it did not haul Renault clear of the midfield. After a miserable time in Austria it shelved some of the updates for Britain and found a performance gain. “With the French upgrade we were definitely expecting a bit more from it,” conceded Ricciardo in Germany. “There was a little bit of underachievement feeling through the team. The chassis… we have found a few things since the start of the season but nothing big.” That’s an alarming conclusion for a team that has long-term title aspirations. It is almost a double failure within one: an inability to update a car that itself fell short of expectations.
Hungary was another forgettable weekend. “I think we need to ask ourselves some serious questions and review a couple of things internally,” asserted Hulkenberg, now in his third year with Renault. “[We need to review] how we go about things and where we’ve come the last 18 months with the car, what we’ve been doing.” Renault’s next big update package is not set to arrive for the next few events, meaning it is likely to be either Russia or Japan by the time the R.S.19 is fitted with substantial gains. Based on recent introductions it’s by no means guaranteed that it will deliver the desired step. Performance setbacks and reliability issues have also been hampered by operational weaknesses, with Ricciardo critical of Renault’s passive strategies in Spain and Monaco, which he felt cost him a top 10 shot.
Renault should still have sufficient resources and ability to overhaul Toro Rosso. But its plateauing, and re-adjustment of time frame for its ambitions, raises concerns. It has already missed its initial three-year podium target and looks no closer to the top three than it was at stages in 2017. Under its current approach, and management, can Renault really expect to emerge as a title force in the next regulatory cycle?
Ricciardo made the second-biggest decision of his career (the most important being to leave Australia) and opted for a fresh start. So far, not great. Ricciardo conceded in Bahrain that he was still shaping his driving style to his new environment, accepting he was “carrying quite a bit of entry speed but killing everything on the exit.” That was down to years of driving Red Bulls in which entry speed was vital, in effect meaning Ricciardo was over-driving for the available levels of grip. “I knew it would take time, but in my heart I just expected to jump in the car and be like ‘sweet, we are going to be good’”. A simplified approach for China aided progress, since when he has largely had the edge over Nico Hulkenberg, but there have been some errors and setbacks.
His start in Australia was a horror show, while his clumsy move and reverse on Daniil Kvyat in Azerbaijan was amateur hour that impacted his Barcelona weekend too. He can, though, consider himself unlucky not to score more in Monaco, was harshly penalised in France and was removed from the Germany chaos prematurely thanks to an exhaust failure. When Renault truly shone in Canada he grasped his chance to qualify fourth, battle Valtteri Bottas, before finishing a fine sixth. Hopefully, Renault can escape its mire so that Formula 1 can be reminded of Ricciardo’s ability else he risks wasting the best years of his career.
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Only 26 drivers in Formula 1 history have started more grands prix than Nico Hulkenberg. 12 of them are World Champions. Most of the others are multiple race winners. Hulkenberg has yet to stand on a Formula 1 podium and 2019 has been another campaign of missed chances and frustrating setbacks. Ricciardo’s signing was a veiled warning for Hulkenberg and presented him with the opportunity to assert his authority and prove that he was the one who should be given the backing. That he has had a distinctly average season, with Renault hardly overly desperate to retain his services for 2020, rather typifies his career.
He has been hamstrung by Renault’s strategy on occasion, and he dutifully obliged team instructions in Canada, but when all is even he has largely trailed Ricciardo this year. His helpless slide into the barriers in Germany was frustratingly predictable. Whenever he gets himself into a strong position in an unpredictable race it somehow comes undone. “If you make your own luck then I don’t seem to be very good at it,” was his wry remark a few days later in Hungary. This is on course to be Hulkenberg’s worst season results-wise since his rookie campaign; he has been a victim of wrong place, wrong time, wrong era, but also of misjudgements and missed chances.
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