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 The RE60 ofPatrick Tambay | |||||||||||
| Category | Formula One | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constructor | Renault | ||||||||||
| Designers | Bernard Dudot (Technical Director) Jean-Marc d'Adda (Chief Designer) Jean-Claude Migeot (Head of Aerodynamics) | ||||||||||
| Predecessor | Renault RE50 | ||||||||||
| Successor | Renault R202 | ||||||||||
| Technical specifications[1] | |||||||||||
| Chassis | Carbon fibremonocoque | ||||||||||
| Suspension (front) | Forks / springs | ||||||||||
| Suspension (rear) | Forks / springs | ||||||||||
| Axle track | Front: 1,800 mm (71 in) Rear: 1,650 mm (65 in) | ||||||||||
| Wheelbase | 2,800 mm (110 in) | ||||||||||
| Engine | Renault GordiniEF4B /EF15, 1,494 cc (91.2 cu in), 90°V6,turbocharger,mid-engine,longitudinally mounted | ||||||||||
| Transmission | Hewland withRenault casing, 5-speedmanual | ||||||||||
| Weight | 540 kg (1,190 lb) | ||||||||||
| Fuel | Elf | ||||||||||
| Tyres | Goodyear | ||||||||||
| Competition history | |||||||||||
| Notable entrants | Equipe Renault Elf | ||||||||||
| Notable drivers | 15. Patrick Tambay16.  Derek Warwick14. François Hesnault | ||||||||||
| Debut | 1985 Brazilian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
| Last event | 1985 Australian Grand Prix | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Constructors' Championships | 0 | ||||||||||
| Drivers' Championships | 0 | ||||||||||
TheRenault RE60 was aFormula One car designed by Bernard Dudot and Jean-Claude Migeot and was raced by theRenault team in the1985 season. The cars were driven byPatrick Tambay andDerek Warwick who had also driven for the team in1984.
This was the only Renault Formula One car run on Goodyear tyres and also the last Renault Formula One car until their return in 2002.
The car was an evolution of 1984’sRE50 raced by the team that pioneeredturbocharged engines in Formula One in1977. While the team and the Renault turbo engine had ultimately been successful in winning races they had never won either the constructors' nor drivers' championships.[2]
Top Renault engineerMichel Têtu and four other key personnel had left the team and the entire team's employment structure had been reshuffled; this proved to be a total disaster for the Renault team. Upon getting to theJacarepaguá circuit inRio de Janeiro for pre-season testing, testing by Warwick proved problematic. The car proved to be 3 1/2 seconds slower than the previous year's RE50, and it was later described by Warwick as being "impossible to drive".[3] A modified version of the car, RE60B, was introduced at theFrench Grand Prix but this failed to generate any better results.
Niki Lauda had signed an initial letter of intent to leave his 1984 championship-winningMcLaren team and join Renault for1985.[4] The agreement was not implemented and Lauda stayed with McLaren for the 1985 season.
Derek Warwick’s initial contract with Renault was only for the 1984 season. During the year he was approached by theWilliams team, who used turbochargedHonda engines, about driving for them in 1985 as a replacement forJacques Laffite who was moving back to Ligier. As the results for the Honda engine had been relatively poor other thanKeke Rosberg's win in the1984 Dallas Grand Prix, Warwick felt his chances of winning were greater with Renault and he re-signed for the 1985 season, while the Williams drive eventually went toNigel Mansell.
The best results were two third places for Tambay, inPortugal andSan Marino, the second and third races of the season. It proved less successful than its predecessor with Tambay scoring the last two podium finishes for the team.
Of the four teams who used the turbocharged Renault V6 engine during the season, the factory-backed Renault team were outperformed by bothLotus and fellow French teamLigier. Lotus finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship, scoring 71 points and three wins, two forAyrton Senna and one forElio de Angelis. Ligier finished sixth in the title with seven more points than Renault who finished seventh with just 16 points scored.Tyrrell, who only started using the Renault engines from mid-season, scored 3 points.
Renault having been outscored in 1984 and 1985 by Lotus using the same Renault engine, Renault decided to withdraw from F1 as a works team and continue supplying engines for 1986 to Lotus who were consistently more competitive having won races and several pole positions with Ayrton Senna throughout the 1985 season.
The 1985 season proved to be the last for the factory Renault team although the Renault name would live on in Formula One with bothV6 turbo and naturally aspiratedV10 engines successfully supplied to various teams untilRenault purchased and renamed theBenetton team at the end of2001. Renault had decided that funding a Formula One team was not worth attempts developing technology for their road cars and the bad PR generated by their continuous failures to be competitive had been the final straw.
Ironically for Warwick, he would later regret his decision to stay in Renault as the 1985Williams FW10 and its Honda engines won four races in 1985, including giving Mansell his first two career wins, the second of which was theSouth African Grand Prix that saw the French F1 teams, including the State owned Equipe Renault, boycott the race under the direction of the French Government in protest toSouth Africa'sApartheid policy. While Mansell would go on to ultimately win 31 races and the1992 World Championship in his career, Warwick's Formula One career never recovered and he would never win a Grand Prix or drive in a truly competitive car again.
(key)
| Year | Entrant | Engine | Tyres | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Pts. | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Equipe RenaultElf | Renault GordiniEF4B /EF15 V6tc | G | BRA | POR | SMR | MON | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | BEL | EUR | RSA | AUS | 16 | 7th | |
| Patrick Tambay | 5 | 3 | 3 | Ret | 7 | Ret | 6 | Ret | Ret | 10 | Ret | 7 | Ret | 12 | Ret | |||||||
| Derek Warwick | 10 | 7 | 10 | 5 | Ret | Ret | 7 | 5 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 | Ret | Ret | |||||||
| François Hesnault | Ret |
