Renault refuses to let reliability distract from progress
Renault F1 engine boss Remi Taffin insists the manufacturer won't let a run of failures during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix detract from what he feels is clear progress being made with the firm's power unit.
Technical issues eliminated three Renault-powered cars driven by Max Verstappen, Jolyon Palmer and Daniil Kvyat on consecutive laps during the Baku race, though it would go on to record its first win of the season courtesy of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Despite this, Taffin insists the issues that hampered Renault, Red Bull and Toro Rosso in Azerbaijan have been rectified and shouldn't overshadow the progress that has been made with the power unit this year.
"In terms of performance we were able to demonstrate on a very power-sensitive circuit that we have made another step forward. This was not through new components, but rather through our continual quest for more power and improvement, concentrating on the details and optimising every element of the package.
"Nico was fighting to be in the top five when he made contact with the wall, and this was on a circuit with a tremendously long straight and a great appetite for horsepower. It was also good for us to be able to cheer the race winner.
What is also clear is that we did have reliability issues on track; issues which we immediately addressed, but this should not detract from the clear progress which has been made. We have put in place new and better procedures to catch any issues before the cars take to the track and we're working with great diligence in this area.
"For our customer teams, we saw coincidence of issues. The Energy Store issue we have seen has been addressed and the new Energy Stores are to a different specification without this concern.
"With the ICE, the latest specification addresses the problems we've seen to date. In Austria, we have the latest versions of components and we should not see any repeats of previous woes."
Technical issues have contributed to three DNFs in the last six races for Verstappen, who last week quipped he was looking forward to driving Red Bull's simulator as it won't break down.
