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[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Renault to focus on "aggressive goals" in F1 after Formula E exit

Renault’s Formula E exit will allow it to focus on its “aggressive goals” in Formula 1, according to the French manufacturer.

Nissan announced on Wednesday it will take over motoring group alliance Renault’s FE entry from 2018/19.

Renault joined FE as a partner of the e.dams team from the beginning, but could not become an official manufacturer entry until the second season in 2015/16.

It helped e.dams retain the teams’ title and won the drivers’ crown with Sebastien Buemi, then wrapped up the teams’ championship in 2016/17.

Nissan’s announcement omitted any reference of Renault, but the French manufacturer has now confirmed its exit from FE and cited its F1 programme as a catalyst.

“We had an incredible championship run during our first three years in Formula E and look forward to a competitive fourth season with the benefit of a very stable environment at Renault e.dams,” said Thierry Koskas, Groupe Renault executive vice president of sales and marketing.

“As a pioneer in EV, we have learned a tremendous amount about high-performance electric vehicles and energy management that directly benefits our EV customers.

“After season four [2017/18] we will focus resources on our aggressive goals for Formula 1 and we look forward to continuing to gain benefits from motorsport racing across the Alliance with Nissan.”

Renault’s return to F1, which is in its second season, has been growing in intensity as the manufacturer looks to accelerate its target of fighting for the world title by 2020.

In addition to its engine supply deals, which will comprise Red Bull and McLaren next season, Renault has undertaken an aggressive recruitment and development process over the past 18 months.

Renault added more than 80 personnel across 2016, and stressed it needed to continue to grow its staff numbers and upgrade its facilities at Enstone this year.

That process has helped Renault score 48 points in 2017, 40 more than it did in its comeback year, and it retains an outside chance of stealing fifth in the constructors’ championship.

Renault statement’s claimed that “given the competitiveness of the environment, Renault and Nissan will work together to ensure a smooth transition, leveraging the expertise and development already available”.

FE will drop its mid-race car swaps in 2018/19, which will mark the biggest technology step in the series’ short history.

The manufacturers’ powertrains will need to last the entire race and Renault has invested heavily in its new motor/gearbox/inverter package for the rule change.

Its development started two years ago and the team has admitted to compromising its 2017/18 package to allow maximum focus for 2018/19.

Nissan will therefore utilise Renault technology in its first FE season, though the powertrain is likely to be homologated as Nissan’s own.

Buemi and teammate Nico Prost extended their deals with the team to include the 2018/19 season and are expected to continue, with e.dams remaining the operating team.

https://www.motorspo...oals-f1-970246/

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Renault says it is working on a "completely new car" for the 2018 Formula 1 season, despite the relative stability in the technical regulations.

Aside from the introduction of the halo cockpit protection device for next season, there are only subtle changes to the aerodynamic rules following the 2017 overhaul.

But as Renault bids to accelerate its push back to the front of the field, the outfit is planning to ring the changes for next year.

Work on Renault's 2018 challenger has been underway for some time now, with the team planning to use Friday practice in Brazil for evaluation of its 2018 plans.

"We're making strong progress at Enstone and it's where our focus lies," said Renault technical director Nick Chester of the team's progress on next year's car.

"It's a completely new car despite a relatively low number of regulation changes.

"We've learnt a lot on the aerodynamic package and the balance of a car built to 2017 regulations, so the car should represent a strong step forward.

"We'll be doing some aero runs in practice in Brazil with a variety of aero instrumentation to help prepare the 2018 package."

Renault's engine suffered a string of reliability problems last time out in Mexico, with works driver Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley failing to finish.

Renault's managing director Cyril Abiteboul said there is a "clear intention" to get on top of the "unacceptable" failure quickly.

"For its part, the Mexican Grand Prix was particularly difficult with a number of unacceptable mechanical problems and we have the clear intention to take fast and strong measures," he said.

"The particularities of Mexico accentuated our weaknesses, but clearly we have not been successful in balancing performance and reliability.

"The performance of our engine has progressed a lot this year as the results in the race attest; we now have to find reliability, for both us and our customers, even if Max [Verstappen] won magnificently in Mexico.

"The team remains confident and united, which is essential to maintain progress to the end of the season, and also for our preparations for 2018. We have the means; our organisation is stable, robust and competent."

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Max Verstappen has admitted that Renault turned down the power in Brazil.

The Red Bull driver won two weeks earlier in Mexico, but finished just fifth in Brazil.

At the same time, the second Red Bull team Toro Rosso were warring on the sidelines with engine supplier Renault.

Verstappen admits that, at the end of the season, Renault has simply run out of spare engine parts as it focuses instead on 2018.

"On the one hand I can understand that," he is quoted as saying by De Telegraaf.

"But on the other, if you have so many problems with reliability during the season, then as a supplier you have to do what you can to have enough parts on the shelf.

"That just seems logical. It's frustrating but we also have to accept it.

"After four very good races it's a bit of a pity, but you also have to be realistic. The car itself was good [in Brazil]."

Niki Lauda, the Mercedes team chairman, thinks that both Renault and Ferrari messed up their seasons in 2017 due to reliability.

"As we had a car with erratic performance, we could not afford any engine problems," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"So Toto and I asked Andy Cowell what was more important - to find a tenth or to remain reliable? After all, you cannot win a championship without reliability.

"Ferrari and Renault privileged their search for performance and lost grands prix."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Alain Prost has admitted Renault may struggle to beat its engine customers in 2018.

Next year, the French carmaker will continue to run its own works team while supplying identical power units to both Red Bull and McLaren.

F1 legend Prost, a Renault advisor, says it will not be easy for Renault to beat them.

But he told Auto Motor und Sport: "For me, the pressure is positive, even if it is difficult.

"The factory team will race against two well-established teams, where the entire organisation that Renault is still setting up already exists.

"And both of those teams also have top drivers -- maybe even the best. On paper we cannot beat Red Bull and McLaren," quadruple world champion Prost said.

The great Frenchman admits Renault was disappointed to miss its target of fifth in the constructors' championship in 2017, "But we will be better next year".

"And the comparison with the customer teams will help us to gain experience in order to get closer to the top teams," Prost continued.

"We will be here for a long time so it's important that we make progress every year. In the end, if we want to win, we will have to beat everyone."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Abiteboul praises Sainz impact on Renault
Sunday, 10 December 2017
By Chris Medland / Images by Andy Hone/LAT & Charles Coates/LAT




Cyril Abiteboul says Carlos Sainz has had a major impact on Renault's future on top of helping the team secure sixth place in the constructors' championship.

Sainz was brought in as a replacement for Jolyon Palmer ahead of the United States Grand Prix, with Palmer having scored just eight points in the first 16 races of the season. Sainz duly returned a further six points on his debut for Renault, with Nico Hulkenberg's sixth place in Abu Dhabi ensuring the team leapfrogged Toro Rosso in the constructors' standings.



Assessing the impact Sainz has had since joining the team, Renault managing director Abiteboul (pictured, with Sainz) says the Spaniard has also been a valuable addition when it comes to car development for 2018.

"He's clearly brought lots of energy, he's brought his motivation, his willingness to continue to progress and to continue to show what he's capable of outside of the sort of Red Bull environment which is a very good environment but sometimes also a strong environment for a driver to cope with," Abiteboul said.

"So he's done that, he's also scored some points. But also he's shown some very useful directions for the development for next year, because he's coming from a different environment. He was capable of bringing some ideas, suggestions.

"He's got a very good understanding of the mechanics of the car, the fundamentals of the car – and it's coming at a time when things were not complete for next year, so that's very useful and we are happy to have made that decision."
 
Sainz's season ended frustratingly as he was forced to retire in Abu Dhabi when a wheel wasn't properly fitted during his pit stop, and Abiteboul admits the failure is an area of focus for the team during the off-season.

"Pit stops have been one of the two big problems for the team this year, as well as reliability. That's one of the focuses of the winter. We are changing the organization a bit to really focus on that. The wheel nuts for next year are already designed because we don't want any of that anymore."

Sainz is currently contracted to drive for Renault in 2018, with Red Bull retaining control of the 23-year-old. At present only Max Verstappen is under contract beyond next year at Red Bull, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo keen to weigh up his options once the new season gets underway.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Renault reveals scale of engine gains during 2017 Formula 1 season
By Ben Anderson
Published on Wednesday December 20th 2017



 
The Renault Formula 1 team has quantified how much lap time it gained from developing an all-new engine for the 2017 season.

Renault substantially overhauled its F1 engine for this year, having decided the previous specification had run out of development potential.

The 2017 power unit proved unreliable and could not make use of a new and lighter MGU-K design, but it produced enough performance through the season to allow customer team Red Bull to win the Malaysian and Mexican Grands Prix on merit.

Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul said the new engine had exceeded Renault's stated target of being 0.3 seconds quicker than the 2016 unit and adding the same amount of performance through the '17 season.

"That was a goal we set for ourselves, but actually in the course of the season we unlocked different ways to manage the engine and to extract [extra] performance," Abiteboul told Autosport.

"The engine itself, between the end of last season to the end of this season, has improved more or less close to one second - when we use it to the full potential, which is not something we would do permanently - which is simply huge.

"It was not without some impact on reliability, which clearly has been the big negative of the season, but clearly what we've done on the engine from a performance perspective is something that we never would have dreamt of, frankly.

"It's more than what we thought we'd be able to achieve."

Renault 'proud' of 2017 car



Although the Renault works team fell short of its "aggressive" target of finishing fifth in the constructors' championship, Abiteboul said the team could feel "very proud" of developing a car that was fourth quickest at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

"On the chassis side, I think it's also very clear we had a very decent chassis from Silverstone onwards, which is a credit to the team that is really taking good shape now," Abiteboul added.

"If you look at the pace of the car, since Silverstone we had a car that was more or less fourth in terms of potential performance, which was not something we could always see because of the [reliability] issues.

"Clearly, having the fourth quickest car on the grid is something we can be very proud of - if we look at where we were last year and also the way we started this season.

"The team is continuing to grow, in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality - with people that made the headlines but also lower-profile people, which are impacting positively our structure.

"We are line with the plans in terms of investment, in terms of recruitment, in terms of organisation change, in terms also of sponsorship acquisition, so all in all I think 2017 has been a positive year."

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Renault was nearly a decade behind F1 rivals - Abiteboul
By: Matt Beer, Journalist
Co-author: Jonathan Noble, Formula 1 Editor
4 hours ago


Renault was nearly a decade behind its Formula 1 rivals when it resumed its works team project, says its managing director Cyril Abiteboul.

The former Benetton and Lotus team was Renault owned from 2001-09 and then reacquired ahead of the 2016 season.

Although Renault won the 2005 and '06 F1 world championships in the first of those eras and won grands prix as late as '08, Abiteboul says by that time the Enstone facility was already suffering from a lack of investment that would escalate under its subsequent Genii ownership.

"There was clearly a lack of investment under previous ownerships," Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

"But also at the end of Renault ownership, in the previous cycle, we really lost opportunities to modernise the place.

"If you go back into this sort of 2007/2008/2009 period, it was far from being great and it was the start of the lack of investment in Enstone.

"So we almost need to play catch-up since 2007/2008, so that is almost 10 years where F1 has changed completely the universe."

Despite the scale of the task Abiteboul says Renault faced, he believes it is "really not far" from having comparable resources to its rivals again.

"We have a big job to accomplish and as far as I can see we are aligned with that," said Abiteboul.

"The infrastructure is coming up, people are coming up, the commercial side - I know it is not super exciting, but it is also important to be able to finance that.

"We have had a very successful campaign of acquisition of new partners and they believe in the project, they can see the improvement at the factory but also at the track."

Renault began a recruitment drive during 2016 that took its F1 staff from an initial 400 to past the 500 mark, with its chassis technical director Nick Chester telling Motorsport.com the tally would "probably" reach 700 by the end of '18.

"You certainly have to keep a good eye on it to make sure that the departments are communicating well," Chester added.

"But actually, I have to say the growth we have had since the end of 2015 has actually worked pretty well.

"We haven't really had any big problems of departments not communicating, we have just been able to do more.

"Some of it is just making sure that the levels in the departments are balanced, so the drawing office can keep up with aero and production can been up with drawing office.

"Trying to get the resource splits right is a little bit tricky, but given the amount of people we've increased by it's been quite painless."

Asked if the Enstone facility was now on a par with rival teams', Chester replied: "Not just yet. But it is well under way.

"A lot of the building work is heading into its final stages, and that should be finished off February time.

"A lot of other infrastructure work is already complete so it is probably 70 percent there."

 

Ispada da vlasnici u vreme dok se tim zvao Lotus nisu ama bas nista radili. Pitam se kako su onda uspeli da dizajniraju onako radikalne bolide - onaj sa dva nosa, onaj sa izduvom napred... Verovatno je sav taj razvoj i inovacija plod nerada i neulaganja.

 

A ovo oko kvaliteta postrojenja i broja zaposlenih - samo treba pogledati cime Fors Indija raspolaze i kakve rezultate pravi. Ako imas prave ljude u timu oni ce izvuci rezultat i iz stapa i kanapa, ako nemas onda ti dzabe astronomski budzeti. Tako da je ovo slab alibi.

 

Ako je 2016. bila godina tranzicije sa budzotinom od bolida koji je u zadnji cas preradjivan sa Mercedesovog na Renoov agregat, 2017. neka bude godina ucenja, za 2018. Abitbul apsolutno nema izgovora. Bude li Reno ponovo podbacio ispod ocekivanja samo sebe moze da krivi.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Potpis Radoye!

 

Inače taj Ejbitibul je poznat po tome što voli upirati prste, ajd u 20 marke da će biti tako i na kraju ove sezone. Sve mi miriše na još jednu tešku godinu bez preterano dobrih rezultata.

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Ispada da vlasnici u vreme dok se tim zvao Lotus nisu ama bas nista radili. Pitam se kako su onda uspeli da dizajniraju onako radikalne bolide - onaj sa dva nosa, onaj sa izduvom napred... Verovatno je sav taj razvoj i inovacija plod nerada i neulaganja.

 

A ovo oko kvaliteta postrojenja i broja zaposlenih - samo treba pogledati cime Fors Indija raspolaze i kakve rezultate pravi. Ako imas prave ljude u timu oni ce izvuci rezultat i iz stapa i kanapa, ako nemas onda ti dzabe astronomski budzeti. Tako da je ovo slab alibi.

 

Ako je 2016. bila godina tranzicije sa budzotinom od bolida koji je u zadnji cas preradjivan sa Mercedesovog na Renoov agregat, 2017. neka bude godina ucenja, za 2018. Abitbul apsolutno nema izgovora. Bude li Reno ponovo podbacio ispod ocekivanja samo sebe moze da krivi.

 

Sve što je rekao Abiteboul je nažalost istina. Enston je je počeo da zaostaje u svemu, od peći za karbon pa do cfd centra koji je godinama u zaostatku. Za radikalan dizajn  bolida je zaslužan Allison sa ekipom, a ne alat koji je imao u fabrici. Seti se da mehaničari, mislim da je bio Japan 2015., nisu imali obezbeđen smeštaj i hranu. Pa se onda Barnie kao čovek velikog srca ponudio i nahranio radno pučanstvo. Tim je tako upao u dugove da su bili na korak od zaplene bolida i opreme na stazi.

Svo to neulaganje je rađeno sa namerom, ali to je neka druga priča

 

Renaultu su target Mercedes i Ferrari, a ne Force India pa Abiteboul nema šta da gleda u njih. Slažem se da je posao tamo fantastično urađen i da su zaista primer kako se organizovati i pametno trošiti, ali to nije ni blizu dovoljnog za titulu. Pobednici postavljaju lesticu visine, a ne sredina tabele. Ne ide se na Mercedes sa receptom za FI

 

Ne razumem zašto mislite da je Renault podbacio prošle godine? Ideja je bila da se šampionat završi ma 5. mestu..završili su 6. Mislim da to nije nikakav ozbiljan podbačaj. Godina je zavšena sa bolidom koji je 4. po brzini i to je najvažnije.

Ne pravi se danas pobednički tim u F1 za godinu-dve. 

 

 

 

Inače taj Ejbitibul je poznat po tome što voli upirati prste, ajd u 20 marke da će biti tako i na kraju ove sezone. Sve mi miriše na još jednu tešku godinu bez preterano dobrih rezultata.