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Renault set to upgrade engine in Barcelona test - Palmer heading for new chassis and new power unit

Published by Christine

Renault set to upgrade engine in Barcelona test
Credit: Renault Sport F1
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Renault have been saving up their engine upgrade tokens in the hopes of giving their cars a mid-season boost. Now they’ve revealed they will be giving Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen new power units ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix – a notoriously hard race on engines – with the units set to be first run in the two-day Barcelona test after Spain.

Set for the 17th and 18th of May, the test deadline also has significance for the team as a whole with Cyril Abiteboul saying: “Barcelona is the start of our development programme and we will see some new things coming through in the race, with several others scheduled for the test afterwards. We look at this race as a marker in the sand – the exit point of our recovery from the takeover, and the first race as our team.”

Jolyon Palmer will get to test the upgrades initially, which could be a good or a bad thing. The Brit has admitted he lost comfort in the car in the early races so far this season and just started finding his feet again in Russia. In Spain, Jolyon will have a brand new chassis to test out with new front and rear wing aspects.