McLaren to use Renault Engines

[F1GTRUeno]

HighwayStar said:

If Mclaren aren’t up there, it will be because of the car.

Depends on what you mean by up there. I suspect they'll be better than Renault's factory team but I don't see them troubling a Mercedes or Ferrari any time soon because the Renault powerplant just isn't good enough.

[mcholeboy_59]

Mclaren won't be hounding merc or ferrari, but i'm VERY interested to know where they'll stack up against red bull... with the same powerplant.

How many times have they babbled on about 'its not the car its the engine' and about them 'having the 3rd (or whatever it was) best chassis in f1', the past couple of years.

i see renault f1 being there with force india, and mclaren being maybe in front of them, but not really in the same ball park as merc, red bull and ferrari..

[CraigyMc]

mcholeboy_59 said:

Mclaren won't be hounding merc or ferrari, but i'm VERY interested to know where they'll stack up against red bull... with the same powerplant.

This doesn't make sense.

Red Bull won 3 races last season. If McLaren wind up on a par with Red Bull, they'd be winning races too.

[HighwayStar]

F1GTRUeno said:

HighwayStar said:

If Mclaren aren’t up there, it will be because of the car.

Depends on what you mean by up there. I suspect they'll be better than Renault's factory team but I don't see them troubling a Mercedes or Ferrari any time soon because the Renault powerplant just isn't good enough.

That is what I meant, I don’t think anyone realistically thinks Mclaren will be a front running this season.
The 2017 season was widely acknowledged as a good, well balanced car just in need of more power. If the basic 2018 car is at least as good then Renault power could them up around 4/5th. My thinking is see where they are after about 6 races.

[Bright Halo]

“Torro Rosso on pole in Melbourne”
Could you just imagine Alonso’s face if that happened!

Seriously though I really want Honda to get things sorted, it can only be good for F1 fans if there is another competitive package on the grid.

[rdjohn]

The 3 PU rule will probably be the Achilles heel of the Renault powered teams this year. At the end of last season, they could not even manufacture enough PU bits to keep RB & TR happy.

After 4-years of dismal performance, I really don’t see why there will be a big shift in reliability. I think the chassis and Alonso will help McLaren take the fight to RB. They should beat Renault, but their chassis and driver lineup will also be greatly improved this year.

Meanwhile, if Ocon and Perez can keep away from each other, Force India should steadily accumulate points through better reliability and avoiding grid penalties.

[MartG]

The big change McLaren are likely to see with Renault is fuel consumption - reliability may be better than last year's Honda too but I suspect there's not all that much difference in power output

[sgtBerbatov]

Bright Halo said:

“Torro Rosso on pole in Melbourne”
Could you just imagine Alonso’s face if that happened!

Qualifying wasn't the problem. It was finishing the race which Honda couldn't do!

Edited by sgtBerbatov on Tuesday 6th February 12:24

[spunkytherabbit]

rdjohn said:

The 3 PU rule will probably be the Achilles heel of the Renault powered teams this year. At the end of last season, they could not even manufacture enough PU bits to keep RB & TR happy.

After 4-years of dismal performance, I really don’t see why there will be a big shift in reliability. I think the chassis and Alonso will help McLaren take the fight to RB. They should beat Renault, but their chassis and driver lineup will also be greatly improved this year.

Meanwhile, if Ocon and Perez can keep away from each other, Force India should steadily accumulate points through better reliability and avoiding grid penalties.

See a post previous to mine.... 'dismal performance' - they won three races in 2017. That isn't dismal by any stretch. Or did you mean more the wider context in terms of the reliability cost with the Renault engine in the various RB's?

[HustleRussell]

This is what concerns me, IMO Renault's reliability issues throughout last year suggests that they are right on the edge with their performance / reliability balance whereas Mercedes' performance was exactly as good as it needed to be with almost perfect reliability. As has been the case every season since the V6T-H engine formula began, Mercedes have plenty in reserve and they will be hurt the least by the move to three engines. Where Ferrari will feature in this remains to be seen.

[Car-Matt]

Given that RBR and to an extent the factory Renault team will have had some input into the packaging and characteristics of the engine over the last few years and have experience of how to operate it best then i think wild statements suggesting that if McLaren aren't beating RBR off the bat then they're rubbish is a bit wrong.

Personally, given that McLaren have been forced last minute to use this engine as a customer then i'd be impressed if they're even competitive with RBR in the short to mid term better chassis or not.

[Derek Smith]

Car-Matt said:

Given that RBR and to an extent the factory Renault team will have had some input into the packaging and characteristics of the engine over the last few years and have experience of how to operate it best then i think wild statements suggesting that if McLaren aren't beating RBR off the bat then they're rubbish is a bit wrong.

Personally, given that McLaren have been forced last minute to use this engine as a customer then i'd be impressed if they're even competitive with RBR in the short to mid term better chassis or not.

Yep, that's what I think.

I've been a supporter of McL since MP4 days, but it's been tough over recent years. I can't see it changing all that much this season. The only thing that will be changing is the PUs.

[ralphrj]

Derek Smith said:

Yep, that's what I think.

I've been a supporter of McL since MP4 days, but it's been tough over recent years. I can't see it changing all that much this season. The only thing that will be changing is the PUs.

I think it will be better than that but I don't think that they will be able to jump far enough forward to challenge Ferrari or Red Bull never mind Mercedes*.

Best of the rest is probably a more realistic target. 4th in the WDC would be a massive success after the last 3 years.

• Assuming none of those 3 produces an utter dog.

[kambites]

F1GTRUeno said:

Depends on what you mean by up there. I suspect they'll be better than Renault's factory team but I don't see them troubling a Mercedes or Ferrari any time soon because the Renault powerplant just isn't good enough.

For me this is looking like the most interesting element of the first few races - Mclaren vs Renault and Redbull... is Mclaren's chassis and aero actually any good?

[HighwayStar]

kambites said:

F1GTRUeno said:

Depends on what you mean by up there. I suspect they'll be better than Renault's factory team but I don't see them troubling a Mercedes or Ferrari any time soon because the Renault powerplant just isn't good enough.

For me this is looking like the most interesting element of the first few races - Mclaren vs Renault and Redbull... is Mclaren's chassis and aero actually any good?

Last seasons car was acknowledged to be very good, hamstrung by the weak and fragile Honda engine. Hopefully they will be able to push on with Renault scrap in the to 4/5. Mclaren haven’t done well for years but it’s easy to presume they can be discounted. There’s a lot of expertise, experienced and know how at Woking.

[CraigyMc]

kambites said:

F1GTRUeno said:

Depends on what you mean by up there. I suspect they'll be better than Renault's factory team but I don't see them troubling a Mercedes or Ferrari any time soon because the Renault powerplant just isn't good enough.

For me this is looking like the most interesting element of the first few races - Mclaren vs Renault and Redbull... is Mclaren's chassis and aero actually any good?

Rumour is that RBR have changed approach this year, so that the car should be pretty much ready by the first test. They aren't developing later for performance, they are developing earlier for reliability.
I think Renault (as in, the car) are still rebuilding. McLaren versus RBR will be fascinating though; given Mclaren's forte is usually to turn up with a pretty well developed package from the start, and given that RBR are attempting to do likewise this year.

If they are on a similar pace at the start (which I think is unlikely, I expect RBR to be handily ahead) then it'll be a development race through the season.

I'm a McLaren supported by the way, for anyone thinking I'm a "hater" or whatever.

[rev-erend]

Don't forget just the Alonso factor.

He is very fast and can drive around issues.. and build championships points given a half decent car.

[kambites]

Renault's drivers may not be absolutely top drawer, but Redbull's are hardly also-rans.

Personally, I'm not entirely convinced that McLaren will beat Renault this season.

[glazbagun]

I think the problem is tat McLaren have been talking nonsense for so long of late that it's hard to take their claims seriously anymore. I would love to see reliable engines and parity with Red Bull just to see Alonso, Ricciardo and Verstappen at it on track, but I doubt I'll see it.

[HighwayStar]

glazbagun said:

I think the problem is tat McLaren have been talking nonsense for so long of late that it's hard to take their claims seriously anymore. I would love to see reliable engines and parity with Red Bull just to see Alonso, Ricciardo and Verstappen at it on track, but I doubt I'll see it.

What is this nonesense they’ve been talking about? If anything they expected great things from Honda in the 1st year built on their glorious Mclaren and Williams days, not on the later years... later expectations were raised built on the progress Honda claimed to be making...
Mclaren aren’t making any bold claims this season, Boullier has tried to manage expectations... eminently sensible in I think.