Renault deserves more credit

The past three seasons in Formula One have been dominated by one man and one team.

Sebastian Vettel and his Adrian Newey designed Red Bull.

Driver and team have, despite a highly competitive few years in Formula One, gone on to take three consecutive driver and constructors titles in Formula One.

The success Vettel and Red Bull have achieved is virtually unprecedented. No has ever won three F1 titles so young and no-one has ever won their first three titles consecutively.

Red Bull and Vettel are very much breaking new ground, but one aspect of their success barely gets a mention and that’s Renault.

‘We are frustrated by the lack of recognition we get for beating the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes, But part of that problem at least must lie with our global marketing team. It is clear that we must create a bigger buzz around what we do. Renault chief operating officer Carlos Tavares told Autosport Magazine‘s sister publication Autocar at the Geneva motorshow.

And he’s right, Mercedes get much more recognition from their work with the likes of McLaren or Brawn GP back in 2009.

‘We are world champions. We are able to sell our engines to the teams because of that, but we do not get enough recognition beyond that.’ he said.

One confusing aspect of this was the decision to re-brand Red Bull with Infiniti in 2011.

Mechanically there is absolutely no difference to the engines that they were previously using, but the branding across the cars is now Infiniti which come under the Nissan umbrella who are part-owned by Renault, so hardly surprisingly this hasn’t helped the commercial aspects for Renault when their brand isn’t clear across the Red Bull Racing team.

But one area of change that will please Renault is the changes in engine regulations in 2014. The 2.4-litre V8-engine’s which have been in place in Formula One since 2006 will be making way for new turbo-charged 1.6-litre V6s in time for 2014’s F1 World Championship.

The new turbo-charged 1.6-litre V6s are boosted by better energy recovery systems. Giving Formula One a more environmentally friendly feel.

The current V8-engine’s produce 750hp and whilst the new power units will produce the same figure, more of it will come from the new Energy Recovery Systems.

In Formula One over the past couple of seasons spectators have become used to the use of kinetic energy recovery system [KERS], the current system producing 80hp and limited to just 6.7 seconds of anyone lap. With limited use it is generally used as a device to try and defend or attack for race position.

The new Energy Recovery System however will provide over double the horse power with 161hp and will be in use for 33.3 seconds per lap.

These changes will put more of an emphasis on the power-units instead of the cars themselves, something that manufacturers like Renault, Mercedes and Honda who could be returning to the sport are excited about.

Tavares added: ‘The rule change will make it more a championship of the engine suppliers than in recent times, That will be key for our return.’