zeph wrote: ↑03 Sep 2017, 15:34
With the exception of 2015, Renault engines have won races every year.
Nobody can predict the future, and I'll admit there's a possibility that next year's Renault PU will be a donkey. But you can only make decisions based on the data available today. And from that, I'd say the Renault is a much better PU than Honda.
No need to put on a brave face. Honda doesn't have a clue. I want them to win, but after three years we should have seen more improvement.
Let's not forget, Red Bull has a contract with Renault, stating that they should receive equal machinery to the Renault works team. It's an agreement that's left from their works deal, but this agreement does not stand for next season. Renault works team will have better engines, like Mercedes had better engines than McLaren in 2014. If McLaren becomes a Renault customer, they will receive machinery that's sub-par to the machinery the Renault works team is having, while the Renault PU is already sub-par compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. McLaren will have to change its car concept to the Renault PU, will have to develop fuel lubricants for the Renault PU.. While Renault develops all of this in-house with its partners. Being a works team, you always have an advantage to those who are customers. Therefore, becoming a Renault customer is a really stupid decision. If they would have gone with Mercedes PU, it might have been a short-term advantage compared to Honda (longer term still chanceless for champiosnhip).. but Renault isn't a step forward on either short term or long term. And I haven't even spoken about the financial side of it. Paying for engines, or getting paid for engines, that have pretty much the same reliabilty and a closing gap in terms of outright speed. Honda is McLaren's only way forward and I really don't understand how we can still debate about this, looking at this from a realistic point of view.
