Renault will have all-new engine for 2019 season

Renault is set to build a brand new engine for the 2019 season in a bid to catch Mercedes and Ferrari before the 2021 regulation changes. The French team unleashed their latest spec-C engine in recent races which ultimately disappointed with its performance and reliability.

Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul revealed that the team would be bringing an all-new engine to the table for the 2019 season, citing the limitations of the current architecture of their current power unit holding development back.

“It is a new engine,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com. “One of the reasons for it, and why the Spec-C is not delivering more in terms of performance, is because we are not held back by the structural limitations of the (current) engine.

“Given the ambition in terms of power improvement for next year, pretty much all of the engine will be new. Not only on the ERS side, because there is little power and little performance to extract there, but the rest of the ICE will be new.

“That is why we need to be a little bit careful and that is why we need to be extremely drastic and have lots of discipline on planning and milestones to make sure that we are not putting ourselves in a difficult position at the start of the season.”

Abiteboul also criticised the current regulations limiting the amount of updates teams can bring to their cars per season, adding that the Renault team had seen positive improvements on their dyno back at base but couldn't bring the updates to the car due to penalties that would be handed out with them.

“The last spec of turbos seem okay too, but they are not on all cars because of the situation where parts introduced mean a penalty.

“That is what is silly with the current regulations, even if you have a better part you cannot afford to introduce it because of all the penalties and all the sporting consequences. That is crazy.

"You are spending money to improve your parts, you approve it on the dyno, it is available it is built, it is there (at the track), and you cannot put it on the car.

“That is crazy. There is really something wrong here. But anyway, that is why – those two issues are addressed.”