Renault saving F1 engine upgrade tokens for mid-season update

Under the engine homologation regulations, manufacturers can make changes to their engine designs worth 32 'tokens' this year, which equates to just under half of the engine as defined by the rules.

Thanks to a new interpretation of the regulations, .

The FIA has confirmed that Renault has 12 tokens remaining, Ferrari 10 and Mercedes seven.

Newcomer Honda has been granted an allowance of nine based on the average of the three established engine makers.

While the exact schedule for Renault's engine upgrade plan is yet to be finalised, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner expects its full 2015 power unit to appear in the middle of the year at the earliest.

"It's still a bit up in the air," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT when a version of the power unit with all tokens spent is expected to appear.

"Obviously, we've got only four engines, so the idea is to bring it in as early as possible.

"There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes both at Viry and with ."

Renault is facing a difficult start to the season, with its engine struggling to be competitive with the leading Mercedes-powered cars.

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo suffered an engine failure yesterday despite Renault aiming to bring a conservative, reliable specification of power unit to the early races of the year.

Based on the weekend so far, Red Bull faces a big battle to get into the fight for best-of-the-rest behind Mercedes with Williams and Ferrari, both of which appear to be quicker.

"Obviously the gap to Mercedes, from what we can see, is still pretty similar to what it was at the end of last year but the group behind looks pretty close," said Horner.