Renault Power Unit Hardware & Software

[Blackout]

BS. The RS16 which is a Lotus E23 that has been hastily modified in December last year to accommodante the completely different and more cumbersome Renault PU, dont even have a streamlined internal bodywork. And that partly explain the draggyness of the car. Bob Bell alluded to that many times. And the cooling system and internal packaging (and weight distribution?) are far from optimal, like Chester said. So the car is clearly very draggy. (and it certainly generates more DF/drag than its twin sister because it received some aero updates since 2015)
And the RS16 is generally faster than the E23. (except China where Mag couldnt do EL1,2,3 and setup his car properly for the 'new' Pirelli... (it was 3s faster in Barcelona)
So to say the new Renault is that weaker than the 2015 early Merc is complete nonsense.
Yes with a Merc PU it might perform better but mainly because the RS16-E23 was built around a Merc PU...

We'll see when Renault joins the Merc and Ferrari club and uses a prechamber (2016 Suzuka/Sepang?) and builds its first PU that has been designed around a particular car, a factory team car, in 2017...

Where do you get the info that the Renault doesn't have all the internal bodywork and ducting. I can't realistically believe that for any modern f1 car, regardless of a hasty redesign.

From all the pictures and especially this type of pictures where you can see that the main bodywork is in place (even if some parts are missing) but there is no bodywork beneath... http://img1.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Ren ... 938980.jpg

[Juzh]

So to say the new Renault is that weaker than the 2015 early Merc is complete nonsense.

New renault as in PU? Or car.

[ReoPTy]

25bhp upgrade around japan GP , and a brand new engine for 2017 season

[Godius]

So it seems that Renault discovered a weakness in the B spec engine.
They were only able to correct it for Ricarde and Magnussen.
They fear that Verstappen and Paler will not go to the end

http://www.eurosport.fr/formule-1/grand ... tory.shtml

As far as I know they didn't change any components on Verstappen and or Palmer their power units in Silvertone.

In my opinion it was a good decision to just race 2 out of the 4 cars with the new engine in Monaco.

[Chicane]

Horner says Renault is 47 bhp behind Mercedes.

http://www.espn.in/f1/story/_/id/171391 ... t-mercedes

[PlatinumZealot]

Ohh. Juicy info there. We know Ferrari is closer but not by much. The 45 hp is still big chunk.

[godlameroso]

How much is that worth on it's own? The Mercedes engine is about .3 seconds faster per lap according to that math so the other .2 must come from the chassis.

[ReoPTy]

Ohh. Juicy info there. We know Ferrari is closer but not by much. The 45 hp is still big chunk.

it mean since winter renault brought 25+35 hp to life, and with around 20 hp to come around japan it means 80 hp this year , i doubt mercedes ferrari or other had in 2015 or 2016 this kind of rising pace , a litle voice tell me 2017 might be renault engine year.

[ripper]

Do you know if Horner is talking about qualy mode or race mode?

[toraabe]

Both Honda and Renault will completly redesign their engines until next season. Does it mean copy of the Merc turbo layout ?
Remember that the Merc turbo layout moves the center of gravity on the engine more forward than the current Renault and Ferrari. Also shorter piping benifits the installation. Don't be surprised if so will happen ...

[PlatinumZealot]

Do you know if Horner is talking about qualy mode or race mode?

It has to be qualy mode. That's the only way to get a true gauge when you have so much variations to consider like tyres, engine settings in the race.

[dragosmp]

Do you know if Horner is talking about qualy mode or race mode?

It seems that Renault doesn't have a quali mode, the motor isn't designed really to be able to work at higher power. The quali mode is basically a no-recovery mode in which every ounce of energy is spent to achieve the best time, but nothing special otherwise

Japan Update will be worth 2-3 tenth (~20 bhp) according to Dietrich Mateschitz.

http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 70410.html

I heard more, almost double if it's not too hot (air temp)

BS. The RS16 which is a Lotus E23 that has been hastily modified in December last year to accommodante the completely different and more cumbersome Renault PU, dont even have a streamlined internal bodywork. And that partly explain the draggyness of the car. Bob Bell alluded to that many times. And the cooling system and internal packaging (and weight distribution?) are far from optimal, like Chester said. So the car is clearly very draggy. (and it certainly generates more DF/drag than its twin sister because it received some aero updates since 2015)
And the RS16 is generally faster than the E23. (except China where Mag couldnt do EL1,2,3 and setup his car properly for the 'new' Pirelli... (it was 3s faster in Barcelona)
So to say the new Renault is that weaker than the 2015 early Merc is complete nonsense.
Yes with a Merc PU it might perform better but mainly because the RS16-E23 was built around a Merc PU...

We'll see when Renault joins the Merc and Ferrari club and uses a prechamber (2016 Suzuka/Sepang?) and builds its first PU that has been designed around a particular car, a factory team car, in 2017...

Very knowledgeable post. Renault will likely have a race-able prechamber design soon. Regarding the bodywork, it is the result of the collaboration with the ex factory team. Its layout is very flexible, but it looks a mess if not inside a chassis. The Merc engine looks nice basically because it's build to be a turn key solution for its customers - and they love it for just how simple it is (comparatively) to assemble in the car compared to the R. 2017 will be interesting, hopefully R won't repeat the compromises of 2013 when they designed a flexible layout that matches anyone and annoys everyone.

[dragosmp]

Another interesting aspect will be the new PU's race pace. AFAIK the Merc has two things running for it:
*more power
*better efficiency

...so R will catch up on power, but might use more fuel or needing more cooling. Will that be enough?

[gandharva]

Japan Update will be worth 2-3 tenth (~20 bhp) according to Dietrich Mateschitz.

http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news ... 70410.html

I heard more, almost double if it's not too hot (air temp)

If we factor in latest comments from Renault, there will be no major hardware update in Japan (as we have seen in Monaco), but only optimization (I assume mainly software) of the current spec + new fuel from Total. Looking at this facts, I think 20bhp is pretty optimistic, but doable. Afair Honda gained similar amounts from fuel upgrades...

[alc59]

Renault can further optimalize its engine

I'd imagined that they might optimise its engine, but that's obviously not enough syllables.