Renault is on track to unveil a significant upgrade for its 'power unit' in Canada. The French marque's F1 official Cyril Abiteboul has already said the step could see Renault halve the current performance deficit to F1 engine leader Mercedes. As well as the struggling works team, customer Red Bull is also looking forward to the upgrade.
"We had a great race in China with the podium," Daniil Kvyat told Russia's Sportbox, "and realised that we can compete with Ferrari. During the season, we can make a step forward and improve the results even more," he added.
Abiteboul has now told Denmark's Ekstra Bladet newspaper that the Canada upgrade is on schedule. "As we speak right now, it is on the dyno on France," he revealed. "It will run as many kilometres as possible so that we can achieve our goal, which is Montreal," Abiteboul, referring to June's Canadian grand prix, added.
He said the upgrade should help Renault's Enstone based works team to improve, after a particularly difficult weekend in China. "We are new in formula one and have not set specific targets," said the Frenchman, "but I would like to see us fight with McLaren and Haas."
In China, Renault - along with Sauber and Manor - was little more than a backmarker. "We cannot resolve everything now, but we have improvements on the way for both the car and the engine," Abiteboul said. "We will fight for points. Honestly it will not be podiums but points in every race." (GMM)
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Replies (2)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Very much on time then. Could be quite an upgrade if they think it'll halve the deficit.
Its been pretty silent from Honda on new upgrades apart from that I've heard they're planning an upgrade somewhere in May, but that is literally all, and its a bit concerning.
Vet5
Posts: 225
They have Illen working on the engines so I believe the new upgrade will definitely be useful and pack more punch. RB have in my mind the best chassis on the grid, very good in corners and very good at following in dirty air, give them a more powerful engine and that might be a dangerous thing for the leading teams. We only have a handful of power circuits left so will be good to see how the upgrade works at Canada