Remi Taffin, the chief architect of Renault's engine design in F1, departed the company last month as the manufacturer put a major engine evolution for next year on its rails.
Taffin was a long-standing member of Renault's engine department located at Viry-Châtillon near Paris, having been involved with the manufacturer's F1 program since 1999.
The French engineer's team supplied the power that propelled Fernando Alonso to two titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, and later headed the design and development of Viry's V6 tutbo-hybrid unit introduced in 2014.
Taffin's departure, reportedly agreed by mutual consent, has occurred ahead of a major design change by Renault for 2022 when F1 will undergo an engine freeze until 2025 and the introduction of the sport's next generation engine.
Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski recently singled out the team's engine as a weak point of its package that has caused the Enstone squad to stagnate in the thick of the midfield, although circumstances delivered a shock win to the team and to Esteban Ocon last time out in Hungary.
“It’s essentially the same car we’ve had for three years, same chassis, same engine, same gearbox,” said Budkowski in Hungary, quoted by The Race.
“We weren’t expecting miracles [this season]. There were still opportunities on the aero side, to do a better job over the winter.
“We’ve done a decent job when I look at our direct competitors. We’ve not done the best job, we’ve not done the worst job, we’ve done a decent job – but we could’ve done a better job.
“On the engine side, we’ve lost ground to our competitors as well because they’ve developed their engines and we haven’t, and that’s because we have a major engine evolution next year.”
Due to cost constraints, Renault was unable to roll out its new engine for this season and has therefore decided to introduce a heavily revised unit in 2022.
“We didn't have the resources to relaunch the development programme on this year's engine and continue to work on the 2022 engines,” said Budkowski.
“So we've decided to put all our efforts on 2022. So it's a strategic decision.
“I believe it's the right one but it's painful, because as a result this year we lost ground compared to our competitors.”
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