Red Bull and Renault's recovery plan

Renault and Red Bull may be bracing themselves for a tough time at the power track that is Monza this weekend, but a newly agreed recovery plan has provided optimism that they can get back on terms with 2014 Formula 1 pacesetter Mercedes as early as next year.

The relationship between the French car manufacturer and F1's reigning champion outfit had been pushed to near breaking point this season, on the back of the disappointing performance of Renault's new V6 turbo engine. A lack of power allied to a spate of reliability issues meant its teams struggled against Mercedes.

And although Red Bull has exploited Mercedes trouble to take three wins with Daniel Ricciardo, it has been clear for some time that a new approach was needed if Renault was to return to form.

In fact, after a deeply frustrating Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull boss Christian Horner went on the attack about Renault's performance and said the company could not carry on doing things the way it had done in the past.

"The reliability is unacceptable, the performance is unacceptable," blasted Horner after the Red Bull Ring race. "There needs to be change at Renault. It can't continue like this. It's not good for Renault and it's not good for Red Bull."

Red Bull had a troubled build-up in testing © XPB

Those comments helped stir Renault into action and pre-empted a management change at the French car manufacturer's F1 division.

Following the arrival of former Caterham boss Cyril Abiteboul as Renault Sport's managing director, an action plan has been implemented that has left Red Bull much more optimistic about the future.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The arrival of all-new engine regulations in F1, with more efficiency and a greater reliance on hybrid technology, always had the potential for manufacturers to get it very right or very wrong.

While Mercedes benefited most from an early focus on the 2014 regulations and a homogeneous programme between its chassis and engine builders, Renault's teams paid the price for the company being late to begin its development. That left it on the back foot from the off, as the complexities of the new regulations caught it out - prompting reliability issues that further hampered its chances of catching up.

Matters were also not helped by Red Bull going ultra-aggressive with the packaging of its RB10 - wrecking its pre-season running when it hit overheating problems.

Horner told AUTOSPORT that Red Bull had warned Renault as long ago as 2012 that things were not heading in the right direction.

"We raised some concerns as far back as 18 months prior to the start of the season about our concerns at Red Bull in terms of the approach that Renault was taking," he said.

"Due to the complexities of the new regulations, the approach regarding this engine needs to be quite different from previous years.

Taffin regularly had to explain Renault's woes to the media in the first half of the season © XPB

"Of course we've enjoyed huge success with Renault and Renault have been extremely successful in F1.

"Thankfully they've been open minded enough to say, 'OK we recognise that we screwed up on this' and that they had to hit the reset button.

"They've had a change around in management there and it's great that Cyril is now on board and starting to make some changes to really integrate Milton Keynes and Viry-Chatillon [Renault's engine base near Paris]."

WHAT IS CHANGING

On a pure technical level, there will be architectural changes to the Renault power unit to lift its performance before the start of 2015.

The manufacturer has known for a while areas in which its design is weaker than Mercedes, but F1's engine freeze meant performance changes were not possible before the end of 2014.

Renault has vowed to maximise the amount of development it will do this winter, with its new upgraded engine having already been fired up on the dyno at Viry-Chatillon.

One area of change that is looking unlikely is for it to adopt the split compressor/turbo route that Mercedes has used this season - although it is something Renault is still considering.

Renault's head of track operations, Remi Taffin, said: "We are still evaluating. It is quite a big change, so it is more likely that we keep our current version. But it is still under investigation.

"If we had to guess now I would say 'stick with what we have got' as it is already on the dyno, but we will keep on doing things in parallel."

The changes for 2015 run much deeper than just being physical on the engine though, for there will be big structural shifts in the way that the Red Bull and Renault operations work together.

Horner is optimistic the changes will work © LAT

Red Bull will be providing more input - including devoted staff at its Milton Keynes factory - to help strengthen areas of power unit development that have not been maximised at Viry-Chatillon.

The focus of work could expand as far as electrical systems, hybrid technology and CFD simulation.

A recent job advert in AUTOSPORT from Red Bull asked for CFD/simulator engineers "to support the design and development of our Formula 1 power unit".

Horner made it clear that Red Bull was open to doing all it could to help.

"We are looking to bolster areas in which we have strengths and Renault have weaknesses," he said. "We are looking to the areas of strength that we have: whether it be simulation, or modelling.

"We'll be working hand-in-hand with Renault rather than independently of Renault."

Renault thinks that if it can get on top of the reliability issues, then performance benefits will be dramatic.

Abiteboul admitted: "Reliability has hurt us both from a performance perspective, but also from a cost perspective.

"The resources that you're spending on reliability are resources that you are not spending on developing the performance of your product. So reliability has to come first and foremost."

Renault is now focused on Red Bull, so customer teams such as Caterham will have to adapt © XPB

WORKS TEAM COMMITMENT FOR RED BULL FROM 2015

One of Red Bull's gripes about Renault's approach to the new regulations was the way that it tried to treat all its customers equally.

While Mercedes and Ferrari focused development of its power unit solely in conjunction with its own works team, and then customer outfits had to deal with the end product, Renault tried to be more equitable.

But its bid to appease chiefs at its four teams - Red Bull, Lotus, Toro Rosso and Caterham - meant it was never able to maximise its performance potential.

That policy is changing for 2015, as it has promised to focus all its efforts on Red Bull. Its decision to do this has been eased by the likely switch by Lotus to Mercedes power for next season.

Taffin said: "It [focusing on Red Bull] is not something we are thinking about - it is what we are doing. We are now developing the power unit around the Red Bull environment so we do things all together.

"It will mean some choices that other customers have to live with. But when you develop a power unit with Red Bull, which is a world champion team, most of the choices must be good for lap time."

IN IT TOGETHER

The Renault plan for the future appears to have reinvigorated the relationship with Red Bull - as both parties quickly realised their best hope of success was to stay working together.

Even amid their troubles, Renault and Red Bull have been racking up wins © LAT

Horner said: "We want a competitive engine, and to be honest with you I think after the problems that we had this year, Renault is our best chance of fixing that in the medium term.

"Getting the right structure in place, getting the right working practices in place with the right people in the right positions is a far better way of approaching this than just looking for another customer supplier."

It is why Red Bull has again ruled out talk of doing its own engine - which appeared to be its only option if it felt there was no future with Renault.

"It's not something we want to do," added Horner. "We're chassis designers. If we can help and support and complement Renault, that's what we'll do. We don't fundamentally want to design our own engine."

And although neither Renault nor Red Bull can predict the extent of the progress that will be made for 2015, it is clear expectations are of a different performance next year.

"I think we have to close the gap," said Horner. "The question is how much we close it, because obviously it's pretty significant. But we're now focusing on the right things."

Abiteboul says the target is clear: getting Red Bull and Renault back to being able to challenge for wins everywhere.

"We want to be in a position to be a contender for the podium or a race win at any track," he said.

"It doesn't mean getting back to the supremacy we had the past few years, but after our blip we want to come back strong - and from a marketing point of view it will be a great story to tell."

An extended version of this feature appears in the latest issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, including an additional interview with Cyril Abiteboul about how Renault will implement its fightback plan