Renault planning engine power boost for Canada

The Renault works team and the manufacturer's customers will likely benefit from a power unit upgrade scheduled for the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

While Renault has improved its engine in the past months, both in terms of reliability and output, the unit still lags its Mercedes and Ferrari counterparts.

Reports from Spain's AS suggest that a step forward is planned for Montreal but a single unit may be made available to teams as early as next month's Monaco Grand Prix.

• Renault confident engine development plan is on target

"According to informed sources, the improvement will be about 30bhp, and on a track like Canada, it would be about three tenths per lap," said the report.

AS believes the boost would bring Renault up to about 950bhp, while it is known that Mercedes and Ferrari have reached the 1000bhp milestone.

Renault's Cyril Abiteboul recently revealed that the manufacturer's engine development plans were evolving favourably.

After meeting its stringent reliability targets, Renault has been gradually turning up the power to extract more performance from its engine.

"If we follow our plan, it will be a while until the second power unit arrives but there will be an evolution of the ICE and also the fuel," said Abiteboul.

AS also reported that Honda has an upgrade of its own in the works, worth a potential increase of 40 bhp, and expected to be introduced either in Canada or France.

"According to rumours, Red Bull have told Honda that the condition of using their power unit next season is that it is equal to the Renault," wrote AS.

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