Renault spends three tokens on B-spec power unit

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Renault has spent just three development tokens on its B-spec power unit after usage was confirmed by the FIA.

Following a successful test of the updated power unit in Barcelona last week, Renault fast-tracked the B-spec to be able to run it at the Monaco Grand Prix. Both Renault and Red Bull have one version of the upgrade each, with Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo running it respectively.

The FIA has now confirmed Renault spent just three tokens in delivering the upgrade, with Renault's managing director Cyril Abiteboul saying in March he hoped to prove big token spends aren't required to deliver major steps in terms of performance.

"I think that this is a demonstration that we have used little tokens but I hope in connection to the fact that we have made a substantial step in terms of performance will be actual evidence that there is no connection between token use and performance," Abiteboul said.

"You can use a lot of tokens and bring absolutely nothing in terms of lap time, which actually is maybe something we did last year. I think the whole debate of tokens should go away and we should focus on performance."

The Bahrain Grand Prix saw Renault spend one token before the current upgrade, bringing its total spend up to four since the season began. Ferrari and Mercedes have both spent three and two tokens respectively since Australia, with Honda yet to use any tokens.

Here is the list of each Power Unit supplier's token allocation left remaining ahead of the 2016 season:

Ferrari: 6 (26 used)
Mercedes: 11 (21 used)
Honda: 14 (18 used)
Renault: 21 (11 used)

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.