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Renault cautious about "party mode" upgrade

09:29, 30 Jun 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Renault has moved to downplay reports that their new engine upgrade brought to the Austrian Grand Prix will provide those with the update with a new "party mode" qualifying engine setting, similar to that of Mercedes.

Renault chief technical officer Bob Bell said after Friday practice that reports stating Renault had a new party mode to use in qualifying were exaggerated.

"I’m not quite sure I’d describe our qualifying opportunity as a ‘party mode’ in the same league as what was previously run by other engine manufacturers.

“No, we have some improvements to the engine that come on a race by race basis, we’re always finding new ways with these engines to operate them to find a little bit more performance.

“I think Renault has been a little bit behind the curve on that but we’re starting to pick it up now and we’ve got a small improvement but it’s not night and day stuff.”

He did however say that Renault has more confidence in the reliability of the car, having tested the new engine on the dyno back at the factory so when it comes to running the engine in higher modes, the team is sure that the performance wouldn't impact reliability much.

“It depends what mode you’re talking about. There are some modes that we can develop over the course of the season that will be available to us on all laps.

“Some you might only want to run them for two to three laps so you’d only use them in qualifying and those limitations can themselves change over the course of the season, so as we get more confidence in a new operating mode, as we get more validation data from the track and dyno we may open out the mileage restrictions on them so we start conservative and then open the window.”