Renault are now moving in the right direction with their power unit, with Renault Sport Formula 1 Team Engine Technical Director Remi Taffin revealing that the start of the 2015 Formula 1 season was extremely painful for everyone.
The engine was both uncompetitive and unreliable, and Renault were criticised heavily by their customers at Red Bull Racing, but the 2016 season saw a vast improvement and saw a return to winning ways for Red Bull.
Taffin admits that it took far too long for Renault to both identify and solve the issues that blighted them during 2015, but the second half of the season saw them improve to the point that their relationship with Red Bull began to be somewhat repaired.
“The start of ’15 just killed us,” said Taffin to Autosport. “We just stopped everything. Technically it was difficult, politically it was difficult.
“We did not know if we were going to buy a team or not, if we were going to have customers. If you put everything into one piece it makes life very hard for everyone. In the second part of ’15 we showed that we could survive but also do a good job again.”
Taffin believes the engine team have once again found their focus and have left the darker moments on track behind them, but feels that they theoretically should have been where they are now back in 2015.
“People have not changed, we still have the right and good people,” added Taffin. “It’s just a matter of organising. That’s what we lost at that point.
“At some point we did not find the right technology which we eventually got on top of, but I guess we missed one year. This year should have been last year.”
