SLEEPING GIANT?
Renault aims to be fighting for the world title by 2020, but can it break into the midfield in 2017?
ON paper, Renault’s ninth-place finish in the 2016 constructors’ standings with a haul of just eight points was a pretty poor result for a fully manufacturer-backed team. But the French brand’s takeover of the underfunded former Lotus squad came so late in the day that there was little constructive way its massive resources could have been brought to bear on last season’s campaign.
Instead, it’s 2017 that marks the real starting point for Renault’s attempt to return to the glory days of its 2005 and 2006 world championships with Fernando Alonso.
The team went as far as launching its car in London rather than its native Paris, to give the technical team at Enstone, Oxfordshire, some vital extra time to finalise the design.
Speaking at the launch, Renault Sport Racing president Jerome Stoll said: “Very quickly we decided to put a cross through 2016; it was useless to invest with the new rules coming for 2017. This is the first car co-developed by the chassis team at Enstone and the engine team in Viry [near Paris]. We have proper integration of the two elements.”
Stoll believes the new rules will help Renault by levelling the playing field compared with its competitors and has set out a clear target of fifth place in the constructors’ table for this season – something that will probably mean beating at least three of Force India, Toro Rosso, Williams and Haas.
Leading the team’s technical effort is Northern Irishman Bob Bell, who has some experience from the early stages of Mercedes’ rise to its current dominance. “Everyone’s talking about 2017 as a year of chassis changes, and it is,” Bell said, “but we’ve designed a completely new engine from the ground up as well – even though the regulations aren’t demanding it. We’re doing that to close the performance gap to Mercedes, and I think we’ve found a good step.”
Bell believes that the drivers could play a bigger role than before, too. “G-loads will probably go up about 25 per cent, so drivers with stronger necks will find it easier. Faster cars mean quicker decisions will be required – so it could open things out between the weaker and stronger drivers.”
There’s change behind the wheel at Renault as well, with the experienced German Nico Hulkenberg being brought in from Force India to replace Kevin Magnussen. Both parties would like their collaboration to be a long and fruitful one, and many say this is Hulkenberg’s last big chance to score the race victories and titles he’s thought to be capable of.
“Nico is mature and young at the same time,” Stoll said. “He’s aggressive and demanding and ready to put the car on the podium, so a good combination for this year.” Next to Hulkenberg, Briton Jolyon Palmer is back for a second
“Cornering speeds will be higher and it’ll be harder for us physically with the increased g-forces” JOLYON PALMER Renault
year in Renault colours, having bounced back from a few rocky races in 2016 to secure his place. “I don’t know Nico well, but I get the feeling he’s relaxed and easy to work with, but also experienced,” Palmer said. “He’s the ideal team-mate, as I’m still proving myself.”
Like most of the field, Palmer is enthusiastic about the new-look F1, believing it’ll end the rather cautious and conservative approach to F1 races seen of late.
“It’s going to be massively different to last year,” he explained. “The aerodynamic gains are huge, cornering speeds will be much higher and it’ll be a lot harder for us physically with the increased g-forces. Reaction times will be shorter simply because we’re going faster and with shorter braking distances, we’ll have even less time to respond if we lock up the brakes going into a corner.”
One question is whether the new rules will lead to an increase in ‘pure’ (as opposed to Drs-assisted) overtaking; Palmer and others are sceptical. “On paper a wider car and more aero grip is not good for overtaking, especially at somewhere like Monaco,” he admitted. “But it was already difficult last year; if you disregard where someone had a tyre advantage, there weren’t many ‘real’ passes at all.”
In pre-season testing, there were some teething troubles for the redesigned Renault power unit, but nothing on the scale of the problems that hit Mclaren-honda. It bodes well for a competitive midfield battle behind the top three.