Come last weekend, we were finally able to see the troublesome Renault power unit, the 2015 engine has caused much trouble for Red Bull as well as Toro Rosso this calendar year. So what has gone wrong? Both teams have claimed bad craftsmanship and driveability of the new engine, which is significantly worse than 2014 one. When looking at the design, there has not been much evolution from last year.
The 1.6 litre V6 is about 100 BHP down to Ferrari and Mercedes, but slightly ahead of the Honda unit. The engine shows the turbine compressor is in the same place, with its odd-looking plenum on top, the air intake is not present at the top of writing this article.
The 90° mounted V6 is constructed from lots of aluminium, as is the Honda block. We are able to see a very short run manifold, which tells us they have the three into one collector, which is mounted very low in the car, as see on the Mercedes WO5 car from 2014. The battery pack is mounted under the driver as we can see the high voltage ERS cables in orange coming from the side of the engine block. The MGU-H is on the far side of the engine, in front of the turbo, with the MGU-K positioned deep in the V4 block, and on the right hand side.
Renault likewise to Ferrari and Mercedes will run updated variable inlet trumpets, these are mounted in the plenum of the car. They increase the airflow into the combustion chamber, so help the engine produce more BHP and therefore more speed.
Cooling can’t been seen too well, but Renault powered cars have really struggled this year. Radiators and coolers are quite larger for this engine, but still not enough. Teams like Red Bull and Toro Rosso have had to introduce a huge air box, as they will lose too much aerodynamic performance, with fairly large side pods.
The inlet an outlet pipes from the plenum are on the far side of the engine, and so out of shot. You can note two pipes on top of the engine, either side of the plenum, this looks to be the combustion air supplier, and so one pipe feeds 3 cylinders. This will work with the ordinary plenum too, which will give the combustion chamber air to burn along with petrol. Secondly they will also use as cooling the MGU’s and V6. The side pod radiators will be mainly used for engine cooling as well as cool the turbocharger at the rear of the car.
Overall the engine is a good idea, but many of its key components have failed this year. Renault have to spend token’s to prove they are a good engine designer and supplier, or else, who will want them next year?
Renault will spend several tokens for the Spa and Monza races, which really depend on engine performance over aerodynamic.
Images Courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool
