Mario Illien is already working on the long term

2016 will mark the great return of Renault as a full-fledged team in the F1 World Championship. Le Losange, which bought Lotus F1 Team, has been working for several weeks on possible improvements to the Power Unit V6 turbo / hybrid, which remains significantly behind its competitors Mercedes et Ferrari. To try to bridge the gap, Renault called on the services of the Ilmor company, headed by Mario Illien. The latter recently spoke to Car engine and sport, and believes that progress could already occur in 2016.

“With 32 development tokens, a lot can be done, but time is limited. We must see, in cooperation with Renault, what is possible in this time frame. I hope we will be able to quickly show progress in the season." comments Illien.

The engineer also admits to having committed to a long-term collaboration with Renault. “We must now, of course, already planning for the longer term beyond 2016. [To catch up with Mercedes and Ferrari], it will take a little over a year. The others, of course, are also making progress. »