Renault spends three tokens on Singapore upgrade

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Renault has spent three of its power unit development tokens on an upgrade at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen is the only recipient of the upgrade at present as the Red Bull driver was out of sync with the other Renault-powered cars in terms of power unit usage this season. Verstappen has received a new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K, brining him up to four of each component as Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer have all used.

Renault has been prudent with its token spend so far this year, with managing director Cyril Abiteboul saying the French manufacturer would focus on improving its power unit without having to spend tokens. A B-spec power unit was introduced in Monaco and Ricciardo duly took pole position but a pit stop error cost Red Bull victory.

The Monaco upgrade cost three power unit development tokens, while only eight were spent in total pre-season. As a result, Renault still has 18 tokens available to it to spend this season if it wishes, while Mercedes has only six and Honda three. Ferrari has spent all of its tokens for this season after an upgrade introduced in Italy.

"Hopefully the upgrade will be positive but we have to wait and see," Verstappen said. "I am just happy to be here. We know we have a good chance to score good points, so let’s get ready."

The rest of the Renault-powered drivers will receive the upgrade at a later date. Drivers are limited to five power units - made up of various components - per season.

Abiteboul previously explained to F1i any upgrades would not be revolutionary but would require tokens for ease of introduction.

“I’ve always said that as far as I’m concerned there is really a complete disconnection between tokens and performance," Abiteboul said. "That’s why Renault was in favour of taking away the token system and that’s going to happen next year.

"Frankly we might see we may be using a little bit of tokens just to simplify the process of homologation of a couple of things that we could maybe have done without the tokens. The token system is so complex anyway that there are some things you can do either with tokens or without tokens.

"We are going to make our life easier by not having to go through the administrative burden of the fair and equitable process and use a couple of tokens. But frankly there are not going to be any revolutions to this year’s engine performance.”

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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.