McLaren adapting 2018 car for Renault engine

Nov.9 - McLaren is reportedly working hard to adapt its 2018 car to the very different Renault engine.

When the British team began the 2018 project, it might have expected to stay with Honda power beyond this year.

Instead, after three years of struggling with its Japanese works partner, McLaren is moving from Honda to Renault.

But Auto Motor und Sport reports that the Renault power unit has a "completely different architecture".

McLaren designer Matt Morris confirms: "We had to redesign the clutch and the gearbox."

The cooling and radiator requirements are also completely different, with Morris admitting that McLaren will simply rely on Renault's recommendations for the first year.

"Only with more experience does it make sense to develop something of our own," he said.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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