Renault Turbo Formula 1

Renault began the era of turbo engines in 1977 and provoked a rampant race in terms of capital investment and technological development. The only way to stop that wave of technical madness was the FIA ban on turbochargers in 1989. But in that long-remembered period of F1, the French Renault gained invaluable experience, winning 15 Grand Prix out of a total of 123 players.

A turbocharger consists of a small turbine driven by the exhaust gases of the engine. Thus the mixture of air and forced fuel increases the efficiency and power of the impeller. The small turbine rotates at very high speeds and a complication appears - heat. This requires the use of an intercooler (air exchanger) that refrigerates with the consequence of adding weight and volume to the car.

The first turbo engine in the F1

The Renault RS01 was a conventional design developed by Andre de Cortanze. The RS01 engine was V6 at 90 degrees with a single Garrett turbocharger. According to Formula 1 regulations, the engine was subject to an equivalence factor of 2:1, meaning that an aspirated engine of equal displacement produced half the power.

While the normally aspirated engines of 3,000 cm3 reached a power of 500 hp, Renault almost matched the power with 1,500 cm3 engine capacity. But the RS01 was not competitive. He debuted at Silverstone in 1977 without finishing any of the 5 races played. In 1978 he barely finished 5 races out of a total of 14. The engine was unreliable.

Renault persevered, struggling to overcome problems such as power loss caused by overheating. For the 1979 season Renault presented the RS10 with a twin-turbo engine that reached 520 hp. The car had spoilers and aerodynamic treatment to achieve ground effect and increase its performance.

While the car was not yet very reliable it reached an almost perfect result at the French Grand Prix (of crucial importance as it was the land of Renault). The drivers of the rhombus brand Jean Jabouille and Rene Arnoux arrived in first and third place respectively. This race showed a spectacular duel for second place between the Ferrari Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux watch VIDEO .

The evolution of the Renault Turbo in F1

By 1980 Renault was a better consolidated and more respected team. The car of that year was the RE20, with more harmonic lines and a little more power in its engines. Renault won three Grand Prix in 1980 and its sensation driver, the newcomer Alain Prost, repeated that number of wins with the RE30 in 1981. The engine still kept 540 hp modest, so they should take the development to another level.

The 1982 season was more of the same. While winning three victories with the Renault RE30B, the car left ahead of time in 60% of its presentations. The car received chassis improvements and larger turbos to increase its power to 650 hp.

The inconsistency pursued the RE40 also in 1983, when Alain Prost won four races but failed to reach the championship, which was won by Nelson Piquet and his Brabham. The French pilot was upset. The Renault team used Prost as a scapegoat and fired him.

What Renault claimed to be “driver's fault” turned out not to be so, since without Prost in 1984 they did not win a single Grand Prix. The 1984 RE50 had 750 hp, but its fuel consumption problems and suspected crash prone front suspension did not help.

The RE60 had plenty of power from two new engines available: the 760 hp EF4 and the EF15 that reached 810 hp in races and up to 1000 hp (with increased boost) in ratings. No version of this car was successful, although in 1985 the Lotus 79 team won racing with turbo engines purchased from Renault.

The French team had introduced new technologies that marked an ever-remembered era of Formula 1. Renault left some records for the memory of fans of sports motorsport.

More information

© Adrián Blanco 2006 — Prohibited the total or partial reproduction of text and/or images without explicit written consent of the author. —

por Adrian Blanco