Renault are hopeful that they can deliver a powerunit that is close to 100 per cent power, reliability and efficiency by the seventh round of the championship in Canada.
The engine manufacturer has struggled to match the Mercedes and even the Ferrari engine for outright power, particularly on the long-straights where customer team Red Bull is losing about 22kph compared to the Mercedes works team.
Whilst the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix aren’t power-reliant circuits, head of track operations Remi Taffin says it’s important they get the powerunit working at capacity, though he doesn’t expect that to happen until at least early-June.
“It’s fair to say that coming into Barcelona or Monaco it’s not going to be massively power sensitive, but it is going to be massively energy sensitive,” he explained. “In the race it’s always going to be important to have the power unit working right.
“At least we have three weeks [between China and Spain] to keep on doing the job, and then maybe ahead of Montreal having something that is very close to 100%.”
Renault have taken significant steps forward since Australia when some of its customers were running at between 60-70 per cent power.
Asked if they can match Mercedes once the powerunit is running as expected, Taffin said: “It’s very difficult to say, because when we get to the point at which we have the same amount of energy around the lap, it’s all about having maximum power. How do you compare power? You go into the games of drag level and so on, but one thing we can say is that Mercedes is quicker down the straights and quicker round the lap, so I presume that they have got a better engine than us.
“That must be right, but having said that there is more than the V6 and the turbo and the electrical machine to get the most out of the power unit. We can discuss about oil, we can discuss about fuel, so we still have a good work in progress with Total in terms of fuel. Definitely there is more to come.”
