F1 News, Reports and Race Results

All Renault drivers using power unit update

All Renault drivers are using a power unit upgrade during the Singapore Grand Prix weekend despite not taking new engines.

The French manufacturer spent three tokens on a power unit update ahead of this weekend's race at the Marina Bay Circuit, but only Max Verstappen took a new power unit having been out of sync with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and the Renault pair of Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen.

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However, the development tokens have been spent on upgrading areas of the power unit which can be replaced without penalty, rather than Renault having to introduce new components for every driver. As a result, all four Renault-powered drivers have the same specification of engine for the race weekend in Singapore.

Renault's power unit upgrade - which comes at the same time as the introduction of a new fuel from Total - leaves the manufacturer with 18 tokens still available for use this season if required. All drivers are now on four of each power unit component, one short of the five permitted per season before penalties are applied.

While Ferrari has used all of its power unit tokens this season, Mercedes still has six to spend if required, and Honda has three remaining which Jenson Button has suggested the Japanese manufacturer is planning to use on an upgrade at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

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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.