Renault Tag

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor After Red Bull Racing pinched ExxonMobil from McLaren Honda in the off-season, the refreshed team from Woking has joined Renault in selecting BP and Castrol as their fuel and lubricant supplier from 2017 on. The move not only means that BP and Castrol are supplying two teams this season, but also that Red Bull and Renault will be using different fuel suppliers for the same engines. It will be fascinating to see which oil company gives their team an edge as power units will be evenRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Toro Rosso announced that its 2017 car, the STR12, has passed all of the FIA mandatory crash tests. The Italian-based team is the second to confirm its updated car has passed the set of crash tests, behind Force India. Toro Rosso made the announcement via Twitter: So guys, good news… You’ve got a car to go testing with!#AllCrashTestsPassed #WellDoneTeam 🙌🏼👍🏼💪🏼🍾✅ pic.twitter.com/0hM0DwHbwY — Toro Rosso (@ToroRossoSpy) January 13, 2017 The updated Toro Rosso car will see inherently greater changes than its STR11 predecessor, in addition to theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Toro Rosso is looking to rebrand its Renault power unit for the upcoming 2017 Formula 1 season. The Italian-based squad is moving from Ferrari as its main supplier to the French manufacturer next season in an effort to be as similar to its senior team – Red Bull Racing, whom reached an agreement with Renault for 2016 to re-badge the power units under the TAG Heuer name. Franz Tost, team principal for Toro Rosso, recently told Gazzetto dello Sport that his team aims to follow theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Nico Hulkenberg has reportedly signed a 2017 race contract that will see him move from his long time home of Sahara Force India, to the bright yellow cars of Renault. The much speculated move has finally come into the light as both Hulkenberg and Renault seek to build a partnership that will move them up the Formula One grid and into championship contention in several seasons’ time. Hulkenberg’s contract is good through 2018, with an option for 2019 that will likely be taken up, as theRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Renault announced this weekend that they are set to continue supplying power units for Red Bull Racing through 2018 and return to supplying them for Toro Rosso starting next year. It completes an extraordinary turn around in the once fraught relationship between Red Bull and the French car manufacturer. Red Bull’s top brass bit the hand that fed them four world championships like petulant children when Renault’s power units failed to initially live up to the high standard set by Mercedes. A major caveat for RedRead More

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 perRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor Welcome to our newest segment at Tribute Racing; Grand Prix Profile. The Grand Prix Profile, or GPP for short will be a look at each F1 venue, with a breakdown on its history and place in the sport. With the aim to give you a real glimpse at the heart and character of the many amazing places, the world’s most amazing sport visits. We begin in Spain, F1’s triumphant return to its European heartland comes early each May with the sports traditional visit to Circuit deRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Max Verstappen was left frustrated at his Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. and the team’s strategy following the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. The Dutchman had a promising start to the race, maintaining fifth after a frantic start. However, the 18-year-old’s afternoon took a wrong turn following a restart after the red flag on lap 18. Verstappen endured a slow stop on lap 33, dropping in the running order and falling in behind Sainz. From there Verstappen was slowed by his teammate, which led toRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor After playing it safe for the first Barcelona test, Mercedes opened up the second test by showing just what its new W07 chassis is capable of. Nico Rosberg had the morning’s testing duties and with a set of softs on the car he clocked a blistering 1:23.022 lap. His time just two tenths of a second behind Sebastian Vettel’s best lap of testing so far. The worrying difference there, is that the Ferrari did its time on the new ultra-soft compounds, the Mercedes set its timeRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Day three at Barcelona has been the most note worthy yet, with a large shakeup in the order that saw Nico Hulkenberg in his Force India top the time sheets ahead of Romain Grosjean in the new Haas VF-16. Hulkenberg ran quickest most of the day, progressing from medium on to soft and super soft tires, setting a time just 3/10th’s off Sebastian Vettel’s time on the ultra-softs from yesterday. Grosjean set his time of 1:25.874 on the soft tires, pushing the Haas VF-16 hard forRead More