The Renault RS17 has been launched at an event in London. The car will be driven in 2017
by Nico Hülkenberg and Jolyon Palmer as Kevin Magnussen decided to switch to Haas F1. The team will 
have Sergey Sirotkin as its reserve driver, who will drive some of the Friday sessions. Alain Prost will join the team as a senior advisor of the Renault Sport Racing team. He will not have a day-to-day role but will advise to help them develop the best strategy for the future.
In the course of the launch Thierry Koskas, the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing of the Renault Group, spoke of the importance of F1 to Renault in terms of its innovation, heritage, inspiration and technology.
The team’s chairman Jerome Stoll said that he expects the team to finish fifth in the Constructors’ World Championship, compared to last year’s ninth place. This will be a big step forward but CEO Cyril Abiteboul said that Renault has been investing more money in the team than all of its rivals and has been working hard to recruit new people, some of whom will not join the team until 2018. The technical team at Enstone is hedaed by Chief Technical Officer Bob Bell, with Technical Director Nick Chester.
The team has partnerships this year with Infiniti, Micosoft Dynamics, Castrol and the Spanish insurance company Mapfre.
joeblogsf1 
What do you think Joe? I assume you were there. How does it look in the flesh?
I was not there
Looks neat whether it’ll be fast enough to beat the Red Bulls … only time will tell,I hope it does. Maybe Renault can do it. Let’s hope they can give Red Bull a bloody nose on the race track.
I suspect that the Red Bulls will be challenging Mercedes quite often this year, and Renault will be pacing themselves against the similarly-engined Toro Rossos, if James Key and his team have developed another handy car like they did last year, which was held back by the undeveloped 2015 Ferrari engine.
It looks good and it was great to have a bit of a 1990s launch with music and fanfare etc. Bit of a shame though that the production and script felt like it was written 20 minutes beforehand. At times she could have done with an enormous ‘APPLAUSE’ sign. Did they forget to give the guests free drinks or something Joe?!
No idea. I didn’t go. Waste of time and money
“No idea. I didn’t go. Waste of time and money”
That was precisely what I thought as I watched it online. Other than massaging a few sponsors personal ego’s I couldn’t really see what anyone got out of it.
The reality today is that if you go to a launch as a member of the written media, you spend a pile of money, you get secondary status to TV stations, you may get some interviews but no-one buys this stuff these days. Better to stay at home and do it on the web. The races are different, but launches and testing are a waste of time, unless someone else is paying
well, You know better Joe. I just thought that 1st day of testing may be interesting in terms of seeing new cars, all other days might be as you describe it, unless one is mad about all the stats and numbers
Ha….ouch. Will you be attending any of the launches? I understand it’s a long season for you… Maybe the test sessions are more your style.
Nevermind. Just saw your post above.
It’s a pity that the ugly ‘shark fins’ are back in vogue – I was hoping we’d seen the last of them.
I was thinking the same thing. I thought they’d actually been banned, clearly I was wrong…
No way! They make the car look more aggressive and less triangular. To each his own though!
Ain’t it the truth. Hate, hate, hate those stupid looking shark fins. Might as well just put teeth on the front wings, ala a WWII plane or submarine. Yuck!
Joe, is Mapfre a subtle nod that Sainz will be there in 2018?
I doubt it
The car looks okay, but the drivers suits are quite silly looking.
I could follow it nicely through youtube, had a bit of a cheap version of a 90ies reveal but I guess that it was more for the sponsors to feel important then presenting a new car.
Would be interesting to see if more teams follow or improve the concept.
Will be interesting to see how the black looks on TV ? First glance it looks the best of the cars revealed so far. Purely a personal observation based in the initial visual impact.
I like the dog leg flow conditioners they look a bit different although if they work I’m sure they will be copied by the second test.
As with the others so far a definite lack of sponsors…..
The black looked good on the last McLarens so I’m not too concern.
Regarding the engine, Renault has a lot of history of making great engines and I’m positive they will catch and event surpass Mercedes in the next two years.
“We have the capacity to develop and have two (2) very decent development programs with two (2) fuel suppliers ant two (2) fuel partners”.
The BS being pushed out by this man is incredible, they may have as big a capacity as they wish and as many fuel oil partners as they like, because finally like the other three manufacturers all they can homologate race and supply is one engine specification for the season, regardless of the stickers on the valve covers.
You would think they would shy away from predictions after what happened to Marchione and Ferrari last year. 5th place sounds modest enough but this may yet prove to be a rash prediction.
I hope they do well for Hulk’s sake. He deserves some success after all these years with none.
Joe,
Anything you can tell us on how big a deal the BP / Castrol thing is financially, and how that compares with the McLaren deal?
In total, there’s actually a fair amount of -car- with Castrol stickers on it. But splitting it up into little bits like this really kills the overall impact. They look like three separate third tier sponsors paying (relative) peanuts. Is that because they are? Really disappointing, I was hoping (but not expecting) a really big splash….
It’s a ton of money. Mclaren is not.
Joe, was the fact that BP eventually chose Renault over McLaren in terms of commercial cooperation (leave aside technical partnership), the final nail in Ron’s coffin?
It did not help
I think BP get to fuel many millions of new built renaults a year and get paid for it.Makes them generous sponsors.
Fueling a couple of hundred Mclarens is no big deal in comparison.
Thank you, Joe.
Seems to my eyes to have less impact actually on the car than say Unilever had on the Lotuses before they jumped to Williams, which I always imagined was a solid second but not first tier deal. Hope I’m wrong and that the activation and B2B makes it come together well for them.
I’m also really worried about the budget,
I mean, he may only be doing a few FP1 sessions, but someone still needs to buy Sirotkin a *race suit*.
Quick whip round, chaps?
Ugly, ugly, ugly… the front wings look as though they’ve been driven through an East End clothes market! Get rid of them and leave it to the drivers and mechanical grip… Little chance of ‘more’ overtaking as far as I’m concerned and little or no relevance to the ‘commercial’ market.
May I suggest you start a tread on the DRS subject please ?
I would like to know your opinion about Ross Brawn almost ready to scrap DRS from the cars. I completly agree because for me, DRS should have never been implemented.
I would also scrap DRS right before the 2017 season. But it won’t happen until 2018.
A tread?
One must tread carefully when writing about DRS.
A new subject of discussion or simply your opinion on that like you use to do. Maybe you talked about it earlier and I haven’t seen it.
Oups…! I meant a thread…Sorry, english is not my first language.
I don’t know if its me that I am rather unimpressed or that the cars launched so far do not live up to the hype they were given in 2016 about looking meaner, faster, and more attractive to new crowds… At least on a screen I do not see any “wow factor” so far!
+1
I agree, underwhelming.
And with all the brain power they couldn’t find a way to get rid of these ridiculous noses?
Not too many rear view shots of any of the car are there? What ones are there they have carefully adjusted the shadows to complete black so that the diffuser is invisible. Hopefully all will actually be revealed next week
I agree: I can hardly see any difference at all! They just look pretty much the same as last year: what a shame after all the hype 😦 (I was really looking forward to big fat 70’s style rear tyres). I say bring back Gary Anderson and let’s have that beautiful 7UP car he designed back again please! Oh and Johnny Herbert too please: we need a decent British driver back in the paddock! 😉
Ole Johnny’s gonna need a shoehorn to get in the car.
Now this is more like it! One sexy beast! The paint job somehow makes it more proportional lengthwise as well. Good job Renault. Ha, just that funny appendix leading to drs, new f-duct again??
I think that looks fantastic, the colour scheme looks like it’s been properly designed rather than slapped on as an afterthought.
I like the look of the cars – they’re not a dramatic change, but they look sleeker and more modern now without those ridiculous big rear wings, and the shark fin on the Renault in particular gives it a mean, aggressive look.
What a shame Prost is back…
Other than his own questionable ethics back in the 80s there was also his diabolical display at the first ever Formula E event.
Approaching the last corner Nick Heidfeld lined up a move on Nicholas Prost.
Like father, like son he moved across at least half a straight before the apex and caused an almighty accident.
Heidfeld was lucky to escape injury and Prost senior made it clear he thought the German driver to blame. Except with no Balestre Prost was fighting a lonely battle by himself…
I hope there are better people in charge than Mr Prost who failed after buying out the Ligier team.
Not a fan then?
Looks like a lot of rake angle. Unless it’s a trick of the light. Looks like last years RB in that sense. Unsurprising I guess.
> rake angle
Scarbs said the same, so it’s not just you.
Of course, any idiot can jack the back of the car up, the trick is keeping the airflow from separating. They’ve obviously managed that in the wind tunnel and in CFD. I’m just hoping their correlation is good…
Is this the new car with the extremely long wheelbase that was reported on last year? looks extreme to me.
No comments about Prost’s off-track ethics and his lack of business acumen,
But if you are talking about his on-track ethics, if I remember correctly in his entire F1 career he had a total of 3 crashes with other competitors:
-Zandwoort 83 with Piquet where Prost was at fault
-Suzuka 89 with Senna where there are many opinions as to who was at fault.
-Suzuka 90 with Senna where Senna was at fault
I don’t think Suzuka 1989 is doubted by many as being Prost at fault
You obviously have more insight than me but would Senna have made it round the chicane without barging into Prost? He should not have left a gap that’s for sure.
Prost drove into him
I may need a Kevlar helmet and flak jacket after this one:
What was Keke Rosberg’s quote about that incident? something like “You could tell Prost had never done anything like that before, because he did it so badly”
I’d guess Joe may not agree, and know much better than I do. I never have never met either man). But the Prost/Senna Estoril 1988 “lunge” was a precursor, no?
Along with Senna/Brundle clashes in British F3, these show (at the least) a ruthless streak.
I accept Senna was a hugely talented driver (I was a spectator at that unbelievable first lap in Donington in ’93), with many admirable qualities as a human being,
But I find the tendency of some like Asif Kapadia in his film (and not meaning those who knew Senna, like Joe) to retrospectively represent Senna as blameless and worthy of deification, distasteful.
Loading all the blame on to Prost or Balestre doesn’t do Senna justice in my opinion. Same with treating any object associated with Senna almost as a holy relic.
Rant over, I guess.
I’d have to respectfully defer to Mr Saward on this one though. Firstly, as per blog rules, Secondly, as he was there and I wasn’t.
Some reports suggesting Enstone will be signing a Spanish driver for 2018.
If that isn’t Sainz (and I don’t doubt your assertion that it won’t be Joe) who else could might fit the bill?
Next point, it seems racing car designers are having as much of a laugh at the public’s expense as theeir road car counterparts. Everything is getting bigger and uglier!
Difference is that for F1 cars, form follows function. For road cars it’s about styling/image. For an engineer there’s a lot of hideously silly bits on most road card (like wheels with lots of stoopid stress raisers for example) but people buy them.
Perhaps soneone needs to point out to all the armchair designers complaining about ugly cars that F1 teams don’t design cars to please the aesthetic tastes of fans. Performance is the sole aim. That’s what one is paid for. (Though Mr Newer reputedly always chooses the more aesthetically pleasing solution if all other parameters are equal.)
If you were an F1 Tech Director/CTO , would you aim for a car that was pretty, or one that was fast?
Anything that makes the car fast tends to start to looking very nice after a few race wins.☺
No idea if it’s true.
But I’m a -big- Sainz fan. Any two of Sainz, Hulkenburg, a returning Grosjean and Ocon the Lotus / Gravity alum would make me very happy.