The new technical directive that will ban ‘party mode’ from being used during qualifying at Formula 1 weekends will not pose a great challenge to teams, according to Renault’s engine technical director Remi Taffin.
In a bid to group the cars closer together, from the Italian Grand Prix onwards the FIA is set to outlaw the qualifying engine modes that has seen Mercedes excel on Saturdays this year.
The Brackley-based squad has taken pole position at all six events so far in 2020, with the competition often almost a second behind.
Although the ban will be imposed in qualifying, it will leave more usage for the race – a trade-off that all teams must learn in order to maximise performance.
“On paper it won’t be too difficult,” Taffin said of the new technical directive. “We will adjust the ratio between qualifying and the race.
“The rules, so far, said we could run modes differently between qualifying and the race and, as always, we try to optimise the rules. Now the FIA has given us a new directive to be applied from Monza onwards, so we’ll try to adapt, reoptimizing and validating the area where we need.
“It’s the same work, just a different output. We’ll have less power in qualifying, and more power in the race, so it’s a new trade-off. We understand the concern of the FIA and we will work alongside them to achieve their request.”
Renault has enjoyed strong reliability with its power unit so far in 2020, with Taffin stating the team is back to a performance level it needed to achieve last year when it was ousted by McLaren as the ‘best of the rest’ manufacturer.
“After six races, the engine is behaving as expected,” Taffin said. “The level of drivability and performance is there and it’s about getting the most out from it.
”The midfield is close and it’s a matter of milliseconds to get into Q3. We can’t let any milliseconds go aside and that’s the work of our race team. The work done at the factory has been good so far with good reliability and performance.
“The race team is there to extract the final percentage from our package each race weekend, which is really important these days.It’s rewarding for the efforts we’ve put in last year and this year.
“We’re back to the performance level we needed to achieve last year, and we’ve made sure to correct the gremlins we had at the first part of last season. The hard work is paying off this year. For the race team, especially, it’s been very intense with the triple-headers. The turnaround has been challenging but they are doing exceptionally well.”
This weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon will receive new engine parts which he hopes will boost his performance in the midfield battle.
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