Renault preview the Austrian Grand Prix

Renault preview the Austrian Grand Prix, Round 9 of the 2016 Formula 1 world championship, at Red Bull Ring.

Foreword by Cyril Abiteboul: “The last three races have been harder than expected, possibly more difficult than we anticipated at the start of the year. However nothing changes our long-term objectives; we just need to re-assess how we get to them in the short and mid-term. We have already introduced our power unit upgrade and we know that this is one of the strongest parts of the car at present. We have also taken some steps in mechanical grip and balance and both drivers are happier with the car behaviour. With our strengths identified, it is much easier to work on our weaknesses. In particular we need to target improvements in qualifying and aero, and we have a plan for both of these areas . Every race is an opportunity to learn more and to keep taking those steps to be where we want to be by the end of the season.”

Racing Director Fred Vasseur: “The weekend [in Baku] was difficult, especially qualifying, and we have to recognise that we didn’t get it quite right. We did however recover in the race. While our race performance wasn’t excellent, it was more or less in line with our objectives and expectations. We have to thank both the team and the drivers for keeping their heads down, but now we need to get back to a situation where we are in a position to score points and this includes doing better in qualifying. Baku was a bit of a one-off though; a street track that was very quick and everyone experienced problems. When we go back to something more traditional, we need to find our rhythm from the start of the weekend from qualifying through to the race. I think Baku was just a one-off. If you look back to Barcelona, this is more representative of where we are. We need to manage the weekend well from the start to the finish, making the right strategic decisions to have an approach that is more global and consistent between Saturday and Sunday. The job is harder when you have weekends like Baku, but the drivers are part of the group, just like the engineers and mechanics, and know what they need to do to have a strong weekend. In Baku they did a good job to fight with the other teams and motivation should not drop just because we have had two hard weekends. I have confidence in them and we need to get a dynamic to get into the groove right from the start of the event. Yes, we suffered in the slow corners in Canada and Baku. Austria should be better for a variety of reasons. I think we are making progress as a team and I hope we can move forward race after race on the more traditional circuits towards the level of performance we saw pre-Monaco.”

Kevin Magnussen: “Austria is my type of country and it’s my type of circuit. I’m particularly looking forward to it. Austria is more my type of country, with the fresh air and mountains. It’s great to be away from a city for a Grand Prix and the circuit itself is really good. It’s small, but it’s high speed. It has a really nice flow and there are good opportunities for overtaking – like into turn two. I like it. I had a decent race and qualifying there in 2014 so there’s nothing bad I can say about it. I’m headed there in a very positive frame of mind and I can’t wait to get out in action. We learned a lot in Baku. We tried a variety of set-ups and did make progress in our understanding of the car. My car wasn’t too bad in the race and we made the best of our opportunities. Obviously, we all want stronger results but we all knew this would be a tough season where we’d have to dig deep and work hard. Ultimately we’re here for the long term.”

Jolyon Palmer: “We should be more on it in Austria, which is a faster circuit and should suit our car a lot better. I feel very positive about the overall Baku weekend, even though I don’t have a lot to show for it! The yellow flags in qualifying cost us a lot and then I made some mistakes in the race. The crux of my problems came in turn one: I got a good start, but then locked up and flat spotted the tyres under braking for the corner. This meant I had to do another pit stop, without which I think we could have been a bit higher up and ahead of both Haas cars. But on the whole the car was OK and we are making progress. I’m looking forward to getting back into the European heartland. Unfortunately we were not that competitive in Baku but we should be more on it in Austria, which is a faster circuit and should suit our car a lot better. The Red Bull Ring is quite a simple track, with just seven corners. Putting a good lap together is very important as the lap times are very close and any mistake can really hurt. I like that though, as the driver can make more of a difference. There are some bumpy zones and some overtaking possibilities, such as turn one and turn two. There are some fast corners as well, including the second-last corner that is pretty quick. Then the last corner has a bit of camber and you need to carry the speed through. I raced there in 2014 in GP2 and I drove in FP1 last year. It’s a lot more fun in an F1 car as there are more straightlines and the tyre deg is very low so we can be flat out the whole race.”

Chief Technical Officer Bob Bell: “It’s an important race for us as the low-speed corner circuit layouts we’ve seen recently haven’t suited us. Austria’s much more in the R.S.16’s comfort zone. We left the Barcelona test feeling quite positive, and since then we’ve added the positive step of the B specification engine, but the circuits we’ve visited subsequently have really caused our progress to falter; that’s something we must address. It’s an interesting track. It has a relatively smooth surface so tyre warm-up could be a bit of an issue, and it’s cooler as it’s higher, which also has a small effect on the engine. Average corner speed is a bit higher, and there are not so many corners. It does have some high speed content so you want a car that also has good high speed balance. This higher speed content should suit us; as we’ve seen from the previous three races we do have a weakness in the low speed corners so it’s good to get away from them! Despite a higher speed, it is actually quite heavy on brakes, so you have to be vigilant with brake temperatures and ensure sufficient cooling. We’ve been quite aggressive with our tyre selection, opting for the ultrasoft tyre and we’re predicting that it’s likely to be a one, possibly two stop race. It’s partly a function of downforce, and that simply goes back to development time. We’re also looking at braking stability, so front locking into a slow corner has an impact on pace. For entry instability taking out front wing helps, but then the playoff is more mid-corner understeer possibly driving snappiness on exit. Traction’s another challenge. These are things we can fine-tune with weight distribution and mechanical balance for example, but ultimately the more downforce you have the more these type of issues go away.”

Power Unit notes

• The circuit consists of four long straights, meaning the ICE runs at full throttle for over 60% of the lap. This figure is comparable with Spa and Monza. The longest straight is the 800m drag from Turn 1 through to Turn 2.
• The long straights mean the MGU-H has plenty of opportunity to recover energy to store in the battery. With a lap time of around 70secs, 46secs (or 65% of the lap) is spent at full throttle.
• There are only seven corners at the Red Bull Ring, which will not give the MGU-K many opportunities to recover significant energy under braking. Engineers will configure the MGU-K to feed the ICE with extra power, thus making efficient use of the little energy recovered.
• One other challenge of Austria is the altitude. The circuit is around 700m above sea level, similar to Interlagos, and oxygen content will be around 7% less. The turbo will therefore have to spin at a much higher rate to produce the same amount of power to compensate for the low ambient pressure. For the majority of the lap the turbo will be spinning at close to 100,000rpm, or 1,700 times per second.

Tyre choice

• Soft : The Tyrolean hat. Good for all weathers and conditions.
• Supersoft : Lederhosen – hard wearing, but supple enough to dance around in (if you like that sort of thing).
• Ultrasoft : Like a delicate dirndl, only worn on special occasions.

Memory Lane

• Jean-Pierre Jabouille claimed his second victory for Renault in the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix. The turbocharged Renaults had dominated qualifying, with both Jabouille and team-mate Rene Arnoux starting on the front row. Jabouille took the lead when Arnoux’ tyres started to heavily degrade and held on to win by just a couple of seconds over Alan Jones.

Quirky facts

• The Austrian flag is one of the oldest national flags in the world. It dates from 1191, when Duke Leopold V fought in the Battle of Acre during the Third Crusade.
• 62% of Austria’s total land area is covered by the Alps. It has 13 peaks above 3,000 metres, and 34 above 2,000 metres.
• Vienna’s Central Cemetry has over 2.5 million tombs – including those of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Strauss – more than the city’s present population.
• Yodelling has been measured at 92 decibels. A Formula 1 car peaks at 140 decibels.

Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247