Renault paused development for ‘drastic’ switch for its two thousand seventeen F1 car
The Renault Formula one team had to effectively pause development for a spell this season because of the scale of switch that its Silverstone upgrade required.
An update package headlined by a fresh floor was introduced on Nico Hulkenberg’s car for the British Grand Prix.
It brought an instant spectacle upturn and almost a very first top-five finish of two thousand seventeen before an ERS problem contributed to Hulkenberg falling to sixth.
Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul admitted that prior to the Silverstone upgrade there had “been a little bit of vapid in terms of developments” as other components could not be introduced until after that step was in place.
“We knew what we dreamed to do but we knew that it was fairly a drastic switch in the philosophy of the car and we knew it was going to take a bit of time,” Abiteboul told Autosport.
“We had to a certain degree almost pause the development because we needed that part.
“It was opening a fresh framework of development for the front of the car, the middle of the car with bargeboards and also the rear of the car.
“Now that is done there is much more to come and that will happen over the remainder of the season.”
Prior to that update, Abiteboul said the main switch Renault had made to its two thousand seventeen car was to sacrifice some qualifying tempo to make it perform better over a race distance.
However Hulkenberg’s qualifying average went from eighth in the very first three GPs of the season to 11th over the next five, he took a sixth place at Barcelona in that time and was running fifth before crashing in Baku.
“We commenced with a very sensible platform in terms of qualifying, and not managing to turn that into race tempo,” Abiteboul added.
“So what we have done is an awful lot of switch to the car in its existing form and form as a commencing point, to trade a little bit of qualifying spectacle into race spectacle – with aero balance, mechanical balance, suspension and all of that – to be a bit more competitive on Sunday.”
The two thousand seventeen season is the 2nd of Renault’s revived works team programme, which got off to a muted begin last year due to the late completion of the deal to reacquire the Lotus team.
Hulkenberg said the success of the Silverstone upgrade was “significant” and Abiteboul believes Renault us moving past its teething troubles phase.
“It has been a good satisfaction to see an improvement at Silverstone but also confirmation that the team as we are attempting to build it is getting together.
“Obviously there has been a lot of investment, a lot of recruitment and fresh talents, fresh energy, which is embarking to create a good hum.
“The one thing that we were missing was on track confirmation of all the things we were doing and hopefully eventually Silverstone was the very first evidence of that.”