Renault: why so many tokens kept?

The FIA ​​announcement on the use of development tokens from each engine manufacturer seemed astonishing. While Renault trying to catch up on Mercedes et Ferrari, the Diamond was the most economical with 25 tokens remaining for the 2016 season compared to 13 for the star manufacturer and nine for the Prancing Horse (14 for Honda).

Cyril Abiteboul, the general director of Renault Sport F1 Team, explained in the paddock of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne that these development tokens were not synonymous with performance.

“I hope that our significant progress in performance will be proof that there is no link between token usage and performance”, commented the Frenchman. “You can use a lot of chips without gaining anything with the clock, which was the case for us last year. The token debate should stop and we should focus on performance. We plan to use more during the season in the hope that this will benefit both Renault and Red Bull."