Dudot: We are suffering restricted engine speed.

By role
May 30 2003

Bernard Dudot, Deputy Managing Director of the engine unit in France talks about the problems they are encountering with their wide angle engine. The team has recently decided to go for a traditional engine configuration for next season.

The team has recently decided to go for a traditional engine configuration for next season:

“The concept of the wide V creates a few technical difficulties”, Bernard explains, “At certain engine speeds, oscillations in the crankshaft cause vibrations that are hard to control. This is one of the causes of the restricted engine speed we are suffering from in comparison to some of our competitors. We are also troubled by a limited maximum power. Finally, the width of the air box, induced by the V angle, delivers an acoustic response which deprives us of performance at low and medium engine speeds. The engine lacks torque. Having said that, the real problems lie elsewhere. Given the number of engines that we have to build each year, it is now no longer possible to keep Formula 1 detached from the economic environment. Our suppliers have had problems making the complex design of the V10 engines without a very high number of parts that have to be discarded. We have not found the right balance between product and process.”

One of the worries is that the team, by changing their focus to a traditional engine will overlook the development of the current RS23. Dudot does not agree:

"There is no question of putting the 2003 programme on the back-burner”, Bernard says, “We will continue developing the RS23 right up until the last Grand Prix of the season. We will make full use of the great potential we currently have in our chassis, engine and drivers, and get the most out of the synergy that Patrick Faure and Flavio Briatore are currently fostering, bringing together the staff in the two sites. The new organisation is gradually being put into place. There is already a group working on the 2004 engine, the RS24. Another group has started on the 2005 project, the RS25. All these engines come from the same philosophy of study: simplicity of design in order to improve the quality of production and assembling.”

Team's Managing Director, Flavio Briatore, was clear to point the objectives of the RS24 engine some days ago:

"...Our objective is to design an engine that can respond to the demands of the new regulations, imposing one engine per race weekend, while at the same time maintaining our performance targets. Basically, this will be a high-performance engine, reliable for practice and the race.” He said on the official Renault F1 page.