Neno wrote: ↑08 Feb 2018, 04:09
Renault was really agressive last quarter of the last season with engine development. Believe it or not. To a point where they couldnt produce enough replacement parts in time. They tested and pushed unit at it maximum. Some teams suffered because of cooling issues which caused reliability issues. They were expected.
Those tests and preps were done in advance so Viry can focus on fixing it for next year. They wanted to see how long can they push unit before it breaks (during race and qualies), how much and which teams will survive cooling problems (different cooling configurations) and which will not in different conditions on different tracks. Those were all preparations for this year which will focus not anymore on extracting few extra horse power, but will focus on reliability side.
Did Renault solve and found solution for those issues during this winter, we will not know till winter test and first 3 races of the year. But all signs point they are working on those issues.
That's why Toro Rosso had major problems with Renault last year. They fought for championship points in standing for money reward and Renault basically used them, Red Bull and also their own team to a certain point as guinea pig for next season. Red Bull didnt complain much because they knew they would use at least one more year Renault unit and wanted previously from Renault to be agressive in developing a unit, but people in Toro Rosso after it was announced they will partner with Honda felt betrayed a bit at the end of season.
I think that's well understood, that Renault started to really lean on the PU towards the end of the season, however TR did not say a thing until Cyril made a comment about their inadequate cooling requirements being the key issue to the press.
Only when Cyril said that publicly did Franz Tost put out a statement directly countering that claim then mentioning the inadequate quality parts.
Renault may have been using them as a testbed to see how far they could push the PU for R&D purposes, or maybe they just went a little too far this time, whatever the reason, STR are not to blame here, they are merely playing pawn to Renault's plans.
And I for one will never ignore the fact that directly due to these issues, they managed to overtake them in the standings and get more money. You cannot say it wasn't beneficial to them in every way, even if it means dishonouring a contract or just being dodgy..