Renault says it will not run its updated power unit before the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The French manufacturer has spent 11 of its 12 tokens on updating the internal combustion engine [ICE] and associated ancillaries on its power unit. However, both Renault and Toro Rosso opted not to run the new engine in Austin this weekend and director of operations Remi Taffin says it will now not be seen until Brazil at the earliest.
“Basically what we bring here is the new engine and is worth something around two tenths if we were to use it," Taffin said. "Obviously this weekend we’re not going to use it for some good reasons, basically overall we decided it was not the best way to achieve the weekend and to get the most out of it.
"First, because of you look at this weekend taking the ten place penalty versus to what we would have gained it doesn’t seem to be worth it. Also, if you look at the conditions, when it’s wet the Red Bull Renault is much better in these kind of conditions, so it’s not worth taking a ten place penalty. If you look at the opposition, some have decided to take some penalties, so all in all we are happy not to have the engine in for this weekend.
“It’s also fair to say we obviously plan to bring this engine to the race but we still wanted to have the full validation done and it has been running until today. It’s fair to say we still have a few bits and pieces to sort out on the final validation and all in all we think the best is to delay it again. If we get a good opportunity at the next race or the race after we will go for it.”
And Taffin says the cooling requirements for the next race in Mexico prevents Renault introducing the update there too.
“Mexico is a bit of a different story. First we can’t race the new engine in Mexico for some good reasons which is it requires a different package for the car. So the bits which have been made for the engine is for the old spec. So even if we wanted to go there and use the new engine we can’t really do that because of installation.
“It’s logistics. If you change the cooling system to cope with Mexico packaging then you have to make some parts and the parts are made for the old spec.
“If you really look at Mexico it’s more a question of optimising what you’ve got. It’s going to be like an unknown area, so going in to that grand prix with the new engine I don’t think would be the best thing anyway.”
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