By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
Following a successful test at Barcelona in Spain earlier this week, Renault is ready to push their upgraded power unit for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Renault believed it was reliable enough during testing to warrant an early debut, having originally set the debut for the Canadian Grand Prix, the race following Monaco.
By moving up the date, the French manufacturer will only be able to give one version to each of their two teams.
Overall, the new power unit is expected to be 0.5s faster per lap, according to Renault’s Engine Technical Director, Remi Taffin.
“The power unit we have used since the first race in Australia was really a continuation of the work started in the ‘Spec D’ power unit we introduced at the tail end of 2015,” Taffin stated.
“We explored some concepts in that earlier iteration and the 2016 unit took them further, for example, in the turbo.
“This new spec goes even further down the line and also includes significant modifications to the combustion system.
“It will make the ICE more powerful but also efficient, leading to a gain of around half a second per lap.
“We’ve used a small proportion of our token allocation for this upgrade.”
Image: Renault Sport Formula One Team
