Renault penalized by a broken connecting rod at the start of the season

Reigning over the Middle Kingdom and starting to get closer to the three leading teams, this is the objective of Renault in 2019. 

For the moment, it is far from being complete, the fault of a series of factors which range from the lack of engine reliability to an RS19 chassis whose progress is not proving as sharp as expected, including a surprising feverishness pilot side.

Cyril Abiteboul, general manager of Renault Sport Racing, took advantage of the Monaco meeting to explain the reasons for the poor performances recorded by the Yellow and Blacks so far, and present the action plan which should allow Renault to get ahead of its mid-grid rivals between now and the French Grand Prix next month. 

« This start to the season is extremely unfortunate, for ourselves, for the fans, but also for those who trust us, our partners, our sponsors., recognized the main team. We seem to be stuck, it's annoying. There will therefore be an action plan to match this disappointment ». 

Cast a connecting rod

Abiteboul then returned to the causes of the engine problems encountered in the first Grands Prix of the season, in particular the spectacular double retirement recorded in Bahrain three laps from the checkered flag. 

In addition to the already known weaknesses of the MGU-K, the French manager revealed the existence of another breakage, even more problematic, which required five weeks of effort to find a lasting solution.  

« I am personally committed this winter to engine progress, unfolded Abiteboul. The objective was very clear: to finally catch up with the best in this field. The good news is that we are in line with our performance objectives; the bad news is that we had to take a little more risk. We have a whole bunch of engines on the test bench and rather than focusing on reliability, we validated performance items. 

It hit us in Bahrain because in addition to breaking an MGU-K, we broke a connecting rod on Nico's car. Instead of completing the final engine validation cycles, we preferred to seek out the final kilowatts. In this respect, it pays off since over a year we will have developed around 50 kW, which is enormous. In the race now, we are in the match. In qualifying, we are still missing a little bit. 

On the reliability side, we missed something: this weakness on a connecting rod. It was microscopic but it can have disastrous consequences at the start of the season. We were able to analyze, react, and in five weeks understand the problem then find and validate alternative connecting rod designs to release four new engines, introduced in Barcelona. 

It's a heavy toll because it costs points in Bahrain but at the same time we had to reduce the performance of the engine while waiting for developments, forcing the drivers not to use the optimal gear ratios. Since Spain, we have retraced 50% of the way because we wanted to regain our confidence. We will be 100% from Monaco to return to the level at the start of the season, before having some additional developments, particularly in qualifying mode. ». 

If the slackness of the powertrain was the most visible, the shortcomings of the chassis were just as worrying, if not more so. 

“Best of the rest” objective in France

Here too, Abiteboul explains why it gets stuck aerodynamically while refuting the existence of a wolf on the RS19

« We haven't made enough progress on the chassis side, he admits. We were very late in development. We are not efficient, we are not sufficiently well organized in our resource allocation decisions. Some big developments could not be completed on time but the good news is that they will happen. 

There is a specific milestone in our calendar: it is around the French Grand Prix, we have a commitment to be clearly in front of the middle of the grid. We know everything that has to come, on the aero and suspension side but also on the engine level. There are some performance projects that were tested in Barcelona after the Grand Prix. The chassis is not bad, there are no fundamental problems. Ok, it clearly lacks aerodynamic load but that's continuous improvement ». 

In the longer term, Abiteboul announces risk-taking on the chassis side with “ technological breakthroughs similar to what was done on the engine » to progress to the level of the best by 2021. And thus respect the roadmap established by the French manufacturer.