Remi Taffin feels it is important that Renault provide consistency with their power unit during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend in order to give confidence to their drivers, which is important if they are to have a good weekend.
The Engine Technical Director says the Monte Carlo circuit is one where drivers can recover energy relatively easily, which aids them when it comes to providing them with that required consistency.
“For Monaco you need consistency, so the job of the power unit is to give the driver a consistent power delivery without too many energy recovery strategies over the course of a very busy and frenetic lap,” said Taffin.
“Fortunately, Monaco is unique in the way it is driven and some of the areas you need to pay attention to for a more normal track are not so relevant. As a driver doesn’t use full throttle as much as at other tracks, they can recover energy quite easily.
“Historically, we would say that Monaco was hard on the engine because of the bumps and the driver maintaining high revs with the engine. We have addressed all the issues stemming from the bumps and the latest generation of engine revs lower and has a different torque curve so these areas are not as critical as before.
“Ultimately, Monaco is about confidence. When a driver is confident it can make a big difference. So we do everything we can do from a power unit perspective to assist with the driver’s confidence.”
Taffin admits Renault knew it would be a tough start to the season, but they have had very few technical issues, and progress was made during the Spanish Grand Prix in qualifying, which helped Nico Hülkenberg advance to qualify thirteenth, although Jolyon Palmer was eliminated in Q1.
The engine manufacturer are still working hard on the development of their 2017 power unit, especially with the engine token ruling having been abolished ahead of this season.
“We knew it would be a challenging start to the year – testing illustrated this – but five Grand Prix in we have finished all the races without experiencing any problems,” said Taffin.
“In Spain we were able to get more from the power unit in qualifying mode. We are not subject to the same constraints as before with tokens, so we can push and develop in a different way than for the past three seasons.
“We are continuing with our roadmap of adding performance, balanced to the requirements of reliability.”