Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

Renault: 'Complete redesign' not required

Renault's power unit does not require a complete redesign despite the problems faced during the Australian Grand Prix.

Christian Horner says the power unit is "quite undriveable" after Daniel Ricciardo was limited to sixth place in the opening race of the season, saying Renault was 100bhp down on Mercedes. Taffin admits the power unit's performance was not good enough in Melbourne but says the hardware has the potential to be much more competitive.

"From the start of the weekend we’ve faced a number of technical issues, both at Red Bull and Toro Rosso," Taffin said. "Reliability has been below par, with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen suffering ICE problems. The two are not related and we are already investigating a recovery programme to make sure we do not see a repeat.

"The biggest issue has been the drivability, which has made it hard for all the drivers to feel comfortable in the cars. It affects pedal application and confidence in the corners so has cost lap time and points this weekend.

"It’s related to the maps, or the way the Power Unit is configured, so while it’s definitely not an easy fix, it does not require a complete redesign. We have got a lot of work to do before Malaysia but equally a lot of motivation to not repeat the same issues we had this weekend."

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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.