Renault plans to re-use Kevin Magnussen’s power unit from the Belgian Grand Prix after finding it escaped his high-speed crash at Spa without major damage.
Magnussen crashed out of last month’s race in Belgium in a shunt that wrecked the chassis of his Renault Formula 1 car and left the Dane with a cut to his ankle.
The crash was so severe that the race had to be red flagged while the barrier Magnussen hit was repaired and the debris could be cleared.
However, all was not lost from the crash, with Renault finding that his power unit could be re-used after avoiding any serious damage.
Lewis Hamilton recently suffered a sizeable grid drop as a result of excessive power unit usage, but Renault’s Bob Bell revealed the team should not suffer a similar fate this year.
“We’re actually looking pretty strong in that regard,” Bell said.
“One of the real success stories of this year has been how strong the power unit has been, not only though being able to exercise enhanced performance but in the reliability we’ve seen. It’s been a tremendous job from everyone in Viry.
“It’s likely we’ll run Kevin’s Spa power unit on Friday in Singapore or Sepang as it looks like there was no serious damage to it in the accident.”
Looking ahead to next weekend’s race in Singapore, Renault F1 team boss Frederic Vasseur believes teh French marque’s current deficits may not be so pronounced under the lights given the tight and twisting nature of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
“Singapore is a type of circuit that should suit us better than the ones visited recently,” Vasseur said.
“We can hope for results that are more in line with those achieved at circuits such as Budapest or Spa.
“The last two races have been challenging and character-building for the team in terms of results. Our global performance was good in Spa and we achieved our best qualifying results of the season so far.
“But unfortunately in the race we had Kevin’s accident and we couldn’t convert our qualifying pace into a deserved good result in the end.”
