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There is definitely something wrong with Renault, no doubt. The key issue is whether they can fix it before the next test.

I've been travelling today so I'm out of the loop a bit, but from my experience at Jerez, the Renault engines sounded utterly horrific. Spluttering all over the place, misfiring and barely getting any power out of it. The one time I thought it sounded like it was working was when Vergne went past me on the pits straight, and then promptly broke down. I think their situation is perhaps exacerbated by Red Bull's tight packaging, but it seems to be largely a Renault fault.

The scary part for Renault must be that Mercedes has said they're not even running at full power yet.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

I apologise, I did miss the '20 weeks to fix' part, I was just taken aback by the part about them not being able to run at 75% or they will certainly fail. I could understand a fault meaning that running the engines at 95% or something would lead to DNFs but 75%?

Rob White and his team have screwed up and if the report is true, Newey was right to chew him out before he went home yesterday.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

2001 Benetton.

Do you remember what the cause was?

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

I heard a rumour that Lotus* was planning a private test at Silverstone, so that would obviously suit Renault.

*Assuming they can get their parts delivered.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Wild thinking: how impossible would it be to throw the renault contract in the garbage bin and fit a Merc in the Red Bull?

Didn't BrawnGP got their car finished before signing the Merc deal?

Seeing as Infiniti [Renault] is pouring millions into the team, very minimal!

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Without knowing anything about engineering, I'd say the contract is the bigger obstacle.

That was (at the time) a revolutionary engine and everyone knew that the 111 degree engine project would take the majority of the season to come good, so by the time 2002 came around it would be a great engine. Unfortunately, it was canned after a set of rule changes were announced for 2002 / 2003. Shame really as it was showing great progress towards the latter end of the 2001 season.

This however is a totally situation to today's Renault. Then it was an experimental project and an attempt to differentiate from the standard V10. Now it isn't.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

Last I heard it was a lot more than a quarter.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Renault has done a lot of racing V6 engines in the past. How can they screw up so bad that engine will fail with -150hp or under 75% load just after few laps?

Anyway, I think they will sort this out before Bahrain, maybe it turns out to be some sort of electrical issue or they go with different crankshaft version.

Still, it's quite odd to see failures like that on this level of sports.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

I was about to comment here about the grief the Atlas forum has worked itself into over the Renault situation, then come here to find the same!! It's not like they haven't had a working dyno setup for months now.. yes they have had some issues translating that to track use, but it's likely that the issues they've been facing will be largely ironed out by Bahrain.

I know we all like to be google engineers but talking about replacing the engine with a Merc or Ferrari one at this stage is ludicrous! Do we even know the fine detail on what really is wrong?

Who knows, they may turn up to Bahrain with not only an engine that now runs, but will outperform its competition..

it's quite different these days with the testing ban... it's not easy to develop a whole new engine if you have zero chance to test it on track from the beginning... off course Mercedes and Ferrari have done a better job, but still... I know they have facilities to test engines, but I don't think it is the same. But then again, I am not an engineering expert.

It might also be that the financial sources for Mercedes and Ferrari are much better. remember that in this whole crisis it are especially the car builders for the everyday men that have been hit the most, whereas Mercedes, BMW, Porsche etc seemed to be hardly affected if you look at their financial results.

They've already admitted that there's been a bigger a difference between dyno running and track running than they expected. For all the technology, you can't simulate the conditions of powering a car on a real track to the degree necessary

Talking of Atlas, I see some of them over there have already started crying about it being unfair that one engine is worse than the rest. Have people's ideas of engines changed that much since the freeze? Or perhaps Mosley has infiltrated them with his "Cosworths for all" idea

Oh god this car is f*cking beautiful

only for F1 in the 80's, I guess it was the most powerful V6T engines, since BMW had L4T

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

What is this weird idea to have 4 days of testing in Bahrain, a 5 day break, then another 4 days of testing in Bahrain. Seems like a lot of costs to fly everything out and back in.

The manufacturers wanted a big gap between test one and two to fix any problems with the power units, so that's why the tests have to take place during that period.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

All the fuel saved by the 1.6l engines is gone right there ... [/cynic]

THIS!

Bernie said for once a smart thing about these engines. He said it's idiotic to talk about fuel savings when the teams have tens of trucks trailing their stuff and luxury motorhomes around Europe. Teams should have cut the amount of motorhomes to save fuel and keep the V10s. It's not even cost saving.

I could not agree more about this. For big manufacturers it was a huge dissapointment to ditch the V10s, especially since BMW and Toyota created V10 engines for their road cars. If the teams had kept the V10s, the experience about effiency would have increased cost effectively. And at the same time they could have introduced fuel limits, DRS and Kers and ditched the wanglets, grooved tyres and refueling. And while we're at it, they could have introduced bio-ethanol fuel. This could have been the perfect win-win situation for everyone, the fans, the teams and the eco-friendly image instead what we have now. We have a joke of tyres that makes racing artificial, we have slow, tank-like cars with bad looks with expensive and dull sounding engines with very questionable efficiency and ecology. And while this has been going on, we've lost big manufacturers like Toyota, BMW and Cosworth, probably alienating them all from the new Formula One for a long time. And we have many teams that struggle with their budgets to stay in the game. Just imagine 2004 engines with ERS in this years cars with two more engine manufacturers and you'd get goose bumps.

I don't want to judge the coming season too early, but the facts are that there's teams that struggle to stay alive, the cars weight 701kg, the fuel is limited to 100kg (so the starting weight is 800kg) and the engines pull only 700-750hp. Needles to say that having 600kg and 800-900hp V10s with 100hp ERS Boost sound a lot more sexier, even with the fuel limit.

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"Indy doesn't give you a second chance. You have to earn it."

[quote="NVirkkula"]We have a joke of tyres that makes racing artificial, we have slow, tank-like cars with bad looks with expensive and dull sounding engines with very questionable efficiency and ecology. And while this has been going on, we've lost big manufacturers like Toyota, BMW and Cosworth, probably alienating them all from the new Formula One for a long time./quote]

I agree with you on some of what you said, but not this.

Only half the cars are a little bit ugly, they sound fine and the tyres aren't a joke.

The sport had to progress or no-one would be attracted to it.

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Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011