Taffin: The new Renault engine is more powerful and driveable

What kind of challenges does the Monte Carlo circuit present for the R.S.16 and R.E.16 package?

Monaco is the slowest circuit on the calendar so the demands on the car and power unit are very different to the previous event in Barcelona. We will work on providing good mechanical grip for the chassis, with high level wings and relatively soft suspension settings, while on the engine front we need to work on driveability in the lower rev range. It’s not necessarily an ‘engine’ circuit, but getting the right set-up and a chassis and engine that is really dialled together can pay dividends in the overall lap time.

We heard that Renault was introducing a B-spec power unit in testing in Spain. What are the main differences to the power unit used since Australia?

The power unit we have used since the first race in Australia was really a continuation of the work started in the ‘Spec D’ power unit we introduced at the tail end of 2015. We explored some concepts in that earlier iteration and the 2016 unit took them further, for example in the turbo. This new spec goes even further down the line and also includes significant modifications to the combustion system. It will make the ICE more powerful but also efficient, leading to a gain of around half a second per lap. We’ve used a small proportion of our token allocation for this upgrade.

Will you use the new spec in Monaco?

The current power unit used since Australia has had several smaller upgrades and all the drivers were very happy with the standard in Spain. In parallel, we’ve been working on the new spec since the start of the season but needed to sign off all the parts for reliability and mileage before using on track. The tests were very positive and showed it to be more powerful and driveable. We had originally planned to use the new version in Canada when the current units are scheduled to be removed from the cycle, but if we can get the units together and completely validated by Monaco we will use the ones available at this race.

Can we expect any more similar steps over the rest of the year?

We will continue our development over the rest of the season, using tokens with a view to getting on board any useful items identified from our 2017 work. We are principally focused on 2017 and making that next power unit as optimal as possible.