FIA Allows Renault to Work on F1 Engine

Renault and Red Bull Racing have just received some great news prior to the start of the Australian Grand Prix two weekends from now. According to British publication Autosport, it seems the French manufacturer was allowed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) to proceed to some changes for their 2010 engines for “cost and reliability reasons” (despite the engine development freeze).

Red Bull Racing was the first team to ask the FIA to allow Renault to work on their powerplants, as they argued some of the manufacturers in the series – and they pointed at Mercedes at the time – benefit from stronger engines in the series. Team principal Christian Horner said that the engine should not be a “performance differentiator” in F1 and asked the ruling body to allow Renault to bring the performance of their engines closer to the other unit suppliers.

However, it seems the FIA did not approve all the requests made by Renault, as they have only answered affirmatively on the changes that will improve the reliability of their engines and enhance lower maintenance costs in the future.

As reported by Autosport, some requests made by Renault were aimed at reducing the level of fuel consumption of their units, something that the FIA did not agree upon (as it would have created unfair competition between the teams). According to some recent reports, the Renault powerplants are already the most efficient in terms of fuel consumption from the entire pack of engine suppliers in the F1 paddock.

“Like every manufacturer here, we have some allowance to fit our engine and have a better integration with the chassis. So, I think, out of the requests that were requested - some of them were quite tricky so the FIA was not positive, but I think most of them have been approved,” said Renault's team manager Eric Boullier, according to the aforementioned source.

Last year, prior to the 2009 season, Renault and Honda requested the FIA to allow them an engine revamp despite the development freeze, as it had emerged that their powerplants were lacking some tens of HP as compared to the other teams. The ruling body granted the two manufacturers the permission to update their engines – Honda has left the series in the meantime – in an effort to equalize engine performance in F1.

According to Autosport, the reason why the FIA did not grant Renault the permission to further upgrade their engines' output was because their investigation revealed no evidence that the other manufacturers are benefiting from much stronger units.