Why Renault's return is going so badly

Given the protracted nature of Renault's 2015 buyout of the old Lotus team, the 2016 Formula 1 season was always likely to be a difficult one for the revived union between Viry and Enstone. But few people, including elements of the team management, expected it to be as tough as it has been so far.

Apart from a surprise seventh place finish for Kevin Magnussen in May's Russian Grand Prix at Sochi, Renault has scored no points, it has only made Q2 twice in eight races, and sits a distant ninth in the constructors' championship - above only the scoreless Sauber and Manor squads.

With the exception of Melbourne's season-opener, the RS16 has been a very inconsistent car - sometimes bothering the lower order of Q2 in qualifying but then fading in the races, or getting knocked out straightaway in Q1 but finding ways to beat Sauber and Manor on Sundays.

The drivers have found the car particularly difficult over bumps and kerbs, which has compromised Renault's performance badly on the recent run of street-style circuits in Monaco, Canada and Azerbaijan, culminating in the nadir of locking out the last row of the grid in Baku.

This level of performance is not what's expected of a team that made Fernando Alonso a double world champion over consecutive seasons in 2005-06.

Analysis of every team's qualifying pace at Sochi, where F1 returned with the same Pirelli tyre compounds just six months after last season's visit, shows Renault is the only team to have lost performance (by 0.160 seconds) from one season to the next.

When standing still is considered the same as going backwards, this is a particularly costly statistic.

The team is clearly struggling to display consistent pace through grand prix weekends. It even spent the crucial Baku Saturday sessions testing suspension set-ups as it works to understand why the car is so troublesome.

"It's a bit of everything," says Jolyon Palmer of the current car's weaknesses. "We're not very strong in a straight line, aero, mechanical, we're not good over bumps; there's not any area where we're great.

"We knew the Mercedes engine last year was carrying us a hell of a long way. We qualified fifth and sixth as Lotus in Montreal, then went to Silverstone and Hungary and didn't make Q3.

"We knew the engine was a big benefit and we can see that now with Manor - they outqualified us in Baku and nearly Montreal, because it's still a good step.

"There's a bigger difference between the engines in this era than the V8 era, and especially last year.

"Mercedes were clearly dominant, and we had the right engine [in 2015]. This year we're with Renault, which has got a lot of positives, but the engine is a step backwards.

"If we had a Mercedes engine probably we'd be looking a lot stronger."

Of course Renault's backwards step in 2016 has a lot to do with the engine in the back of the car, but the impact of the power unit change is more significant than pure power, because that switch has also had significant knock-on impacts for the chassis, which is ostensibly an updated version of last year's Lotus E23.

"The chassis was designed for the Mercedes engine, with the weight of the Mercedes engine, the balance of the Mercedes engine, the cooling system of the Mercedes engine, the weight distribution for the Mercedes, the gearbox for the Mercedes - and we were already up against it to be on track [for pre-season]," Renault racing director Frederic Vasseur tells Autosport.

"At one stage we had to put the Renault in - we had two weeks to do it if we wanted to be in Barcelona [for testing]. We don't have to complain today; we knew perfectly when we took over the company at the end of December that it will be very tough.

"The chassis was probably a very good one in January 2015, but it was not developed at all over the season, because they [Lotus] had no resources.

"And if you consider all the other teams are improving more or less one second over the season, it means that we didn't improve over the last season, and we didn't improve over the winter. Compared to January we lost something like 1.5 seconds."

Getting the sensitive Pirelli tyres working consistently has been a particular weakness for Renault this season, which helps explain the wild swing in form from session to session.

"If you don't work the tyres you start to get into a world of problems," says Palmer. "Really it's a compromise with drag and downforce, and then working the tyres and getting them in the operating window. If you miss something on the tyres it can cost you a lot more than a little bit of tweaking on the set-up.

"It's difficult to quantify if we miss much, or exactly what we miss, but it's been a bit more of a grey area - certainly the last two races and even back to Monaco, with the smooth surfaces and street circuits, and the cooler temperatures as well.

"It's easier to get the tyres working better when you're going faster on the straights and you've got more aero, because you've got more load on the tyres and they're working harder, so it's easier to get them into the operating window at the right time.

"The engineers are the same as the ones that were working the tyres well last year, and the car isn't night and day different, we'd just be better off with a bit more downforce and straightline speed."

The team's managing director Cyril Abiteboul admitted ahead of this weekend's Austrian GP that Renault needs to re-assess how it progresses in F1 after its recent tough run, though there is hope of an improved showing at the Red Bull Ring this weekend, given it is a smooth, conventional circuit devoid of the sort of big bumps and aggressive kerbs that have hurt Renault recently.

When you consider that Red Bull has won a race this season using the same power unit as Renault, the shortcomings of the Renault chassis and the Enstone team's paucity of results are brutally exposed.

But it's worth remembering Red Bull has been developing around the Renault engine throughout the current rules cycle, whereas what is now the works team has switched from Renault to Mercedes and back again since 2014 - all in the midst of financial struggle and uncertainty.

Renault's late takeover of Lotus has also seriously compromised potential in-season development for '16, as Renault prioritises rebuilding an off-track infrastructure that has been severely starved of investment in recent times.

"We knew perfectly the situation when we took over the [Lotus] company that the chassis is a long-term process, because first you have to invest in the company," Vasseur explains. "You cannot forget Enstone had a huge lack of investment over the last five years. It means that before we can try to develop something and come back we have to do this kind of investment.

"We could be focused on next week, we could try to get the best result - and to be honest we are trying because I want to keep everyone under pressure - but we knew the recovery is a very long process, and it will not be before '17 or '18. That's life.

"It's tough because when you are racing, everybody would like to get results like we did in Sochi, because as soon as you do you get extra motivation, but we have to stick with the plan and be focused on the structure of the company - recruiting good people, investing in the infrastructure."

The real focus for Renault this year is away from the track. The Enstone operation was gutted by months of under-investment, and Renault knows this needs to be properly revived before it can make any real progress on track and make proper inroads into its five-year plan to challenge for championships again.

Vasseur's argument is that properly rebuilding Enstone and recruiting new staff could be worth several seconds of laptime for next season and beyond, as opposed to the tenths available in the short term from working feverishly on this year's late and compromised car.

"There are some small updates in the pipeline, but the focus is very much on the longer term," he says. "We have to invest first in the resources into the factory - machining, [CFD] cluster, update for the windtunnel. We [already] did huge improvements from January in terms of investment - machining, composites - every single department.

"If you are fully focused and dedicated on '16 you could produce some updates for the last few races, but you will mess up completely the '17 season. You have to find a good balance.

"We are not expecting to have huge change in terms of performance [this year]. It's much better to be focused on the structure and investment of the team for '17."

Which suggests Renault must largely make do with what it has this year - treading water while the former Lotus operation is properly restored.

With big chassis regulation changes on the horizon for next year this makes sense. Perhaps then we will get to see the first real glimpses of what the new-look Renault works team is really all about.