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Verstappen unhappy with Renault power unit performance

Published on 14 Apr 2018 11:54
9
By: Paul Athes

After a difficult Bahrain race weekend and another series of struggles with the Renault power unit in China, Max Verstappen criticised the performance of the Renault power unit via radio messages. The Dutchman complained about his engine several times on Saturday.

Verstappen ended the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying session in fifth place behind both of the Ferrari and Mercedes drivers. He out-qualified teammate Daniel Ricciardo by nearly two tenths. Although he performed respectively, the Red Bull driver made several comments regarding his engine performances.

"I think it would be a bad thing if it wouldn’t frustrate me, right?” Verstappen said. “I’m here to win races and I think everybody who’s working on my car wants exactly the same thing." he added.

Verstappen also complained about problems with degradation in his power unit's top speed when running at high revs: “The gap on the straights were a bit bigger than we expected before we came here. But then also from our side just fine-tuning [is needed]." he said.

“The power modes were not great. Some of the issues as well I’ve had before, like [getting] close to the limiter, some problems while upshifting and stuff, it just doesn’t really work.” Verstappen concluded.

Paul Athes

F1 News Max Verstappen Renault Red Bull Racing

Replies (9)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Honda and Renault still have plenty of work to do. They are likely still a season behind Ferrari and Merc' in development.
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- Apr 14 2018 - 13:50
- Hepp
  
  Posts: 200
  Agreed, (here come the puns and sarcasm) ...
  This is just Max crying ..... Wolff ?
  Then there is little Chris Horner, sitting in the corner, eating his crow pie.
  And Dr. Helmuttonhead, he's the one who said, "kiss the girls then make them cry."
  Then there's Dani Ric, Any top team's first pic, The take-away from Red Bull is it gives you wings. Two more races to make your mind up ? Where do you want to wind up ? I think Kimi would gladly give you his seat if it was up to him.
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  Apr 14 2018 - 21:17
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Thats some gold there! If Hammy was here, he'd make a chain of it for sure!
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  Apr 14 2018 - 21:54
LightIsRight

Posts: 113
Going to be a season of whining and whinging from Max...
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- Apr 14 2018 - 16:13
mcbhargav

Posts: 1,332
Read: “I thought Renault will magically become the best engine when insigned Redbull for multi year contract”
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- Apr 14 2018 - 17:10
boudy

Posts: 1,168
Read: Renault engines have not made any ingress into the dominance of Mercedes and Ferrari.
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- Apr 14 2018 - 17:57
Pauli

Posts: 140
Read exactly: Renault engine has faster than expected power drop at high rpm. That means they have to shift to higher gear a bit earlier and top speed would need a bit lower gear ration for the 8th gear than they have now in the car.

The issue will show pretty badly in China because of straight between turns 13 and 14. That is also going to be prima overtaking place tomorrow making it unlikely that RB can overtake anyone there while others may have easy overtake of them.
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- Apr 14 2018 - 21:13
- Pauli
  
  Posts: 140
  I decided to come back to explain details behind the issue. The maximum fuel allowance is archived at 10500rpm. That is very likely peak power output rpm for all engines. But engines still regularly rev much higher because rpm limit is 15000. Also lower rpms have limited fuel making them produce less power than 10500-12000rpm. All engines lose power output when increase rpm without increasing fuel flow making those rpms less efficient but now difference seems to be that Renault has promised some numbers for power drop over 10500rpm but the engine in RB doesn't get those promised values.
  
  The shortcoming in high rpm power output then causes trouble with gear ratio optimization (specially for top speed) and power lose compromise when shifting to a higher gear.
  
  If there was no fuel flow limits then it is very likely that these engines would have much higher peak power output at a higher rpm but then engines would have much faster power drop after reaching the peak rpm.
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  Apr 14 2018 - 22:47
TimberVD

Posts: 42
For those who say he's just whining and whinging. Just some perspective. Max has been suffering with terrible Renault engines since 2015, that's I believe the same season that when Alonso started using Honda engines. I think anyone in his position would be complaining. Renault engines have just been embarrassing since the hybrid era, with failure after failure and poor performance. Honda stole the limelight but that doesn't make the Renault power unit any better. 4 years later and they are still just one notch above terrible. Yet, 2018 and they fail again when they finally allow the customers to turn up the power? So, this makes Max suffering from Renault power units longer then Alonso. How wonder how much Alonso would be raging. I reckon a bit more then poor Max and Ric!!! Give them a break.
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- Apr 14 2018 - 23:13