The Renault RE40 is a
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing car. It was designed by Michel Tétu — under the direction of
Bernard Dudot
Bernard Dudot () (born 30 January 1939) is a French engineer who was instrumental in the development of the turbo V6 and normally aspirated V10 engines of Formula One while working for Alpine and Renault. , he is Head of Engineering of the GP2 ...
, and with
aerodynamics
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dy ...
by
Jean-Claude Migeot Jean-Claude is a French masculine given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Jean-Claude Ades, an Italian electronic music producer
* Jean-Claude Alibert (died 2020), a French racing driver
* Jean-Claude Amiot (born 1939), a French compose ...
— as
Renault's car for the
1983 Formula One season
The 1983 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 37th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1983 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1983 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were conteste ...
.
Design
Ground effect had been banned at the end of 1982, and so the car was built around a flat-bottomed arrangement. It featured enlarged wings to try to claw back as much of the lost downforce as possible. It was also the first Formula One car to feature exhaust routing such that it increased the downforce created by the diffuser.
René Arnoux
René Alexandre Arnoux (; born 4 July 1948) is a French former racing driver who competed in 12 Formula One seasons (1978 to 1989). He participated in 165 World Championship Grands Prix (149 starts) winning seven of them, achieving 22 podium fi ...
had left the team to be replaced by
Eddie Cheever
Edward McKay "Eddie" Cheever Jr. (born January 10, 1958) is an American former racing driver who raced for almost 30 years in Formula One, sports cars, CART, and the Indy Racing League. Cheever participated in 143 Formula One World Championshi ...
, whilst
Alain Prost
Alain Marie Pascal Prost (; born 24 February 1955) is a French retired racing driver and Formula One team owner. A four-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, from 1987 until 2001 he held the record for most Grand Prix victories until Micha ...
was now undisputed no.1 driver. The RE40 was designed around his driving style, and he racked up many miles of testing to avoid the unreliability of the previous two seasons.
The RE40 was the first Renault chassis to be built entirely of
carbon fibre
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...
. Construction of the chassis was outsourced to carbon fibre-specialists
Hurel-Dubois, who had experience of the material through their aerospace background. The only part of the chassis not to be constructed in the new material was a small, aluminium nose section, known as the "crash box", that facilitated easy repair in the case of a minor accident. As Formula One use of carbon fibre was only a recent development, and following
Didier Pironi's career-ending accident the previous year, the chassis was overbuilt to ensure strength.
Within the novel chassis sat Renault's, by now venerable, ''Renault Gordini EF1''
turbocharged 1.5-litre
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabr ...
. The unit had first been introduced with the
Renault RS01
The Renault RS01 was the first Formula One car to be powered by a turbocharged engine. It was also the first to use radial tyres, which were provided by Michelin. Designed by André de Cortanze and Jean-Pierre Jabouille, it first appeared at the ...
in , and was the first turbocharged engine ever to win a Formula One Grand Prix. Over the years the engine had been uprated and subtly redesigned, and the twin-turbo (one per cylinder bank) evolution within the RE40 produced a claimed . However, the turbochargers themselves were to prove the RE40's weakness in 1983, and on numerous occasions turbo troubles ended Prost or Cheever's race. Alain Prost later recalled that "''that year there was a good turbo to have and a bad one. We had the bad one''".
[Dro, p. 88]
Competition history
![Renault RE40 Donington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Renault_RE40_Donington.jpg)
Prost scored consistently and took four wins during the season. He led the drivers' championship for most of the season, ahead of Arnoux who was now at
Ferrari alongside another championship contender
Patrick Tambay, and World Champion
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers in various motorspo ...
in the
Brabham-
BMW, but at the final round in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
the turbo in Prost's car failed and Piquet won the title by two points.
The RE40 was best suited to the faster tracks such as
Spa,
Silverstone, the
Österreichring
The Red Bull Ring is a motorsport race track in Spielberg, Styria, Austria.
The race circuit was founded as Österreichring (translation: Austrian Circuit) and hosted the Austrian Grand Prix for 18 consecutive years, from to . It was later sho ...
and
Monza (of the four, Prost would only fail to win Monza where he recorded a DNF), but Prost made the best of his car and team and won more races than any other driver during the year. Cheever, who accepted being the number 2 driver behind Prost, proved to be a good team mate; unlike with Arnoux, Prost and Cheever got on well and the atmosphere within the team was generally good. Cheever scored several podiums and was in line for victory on more than one occasion, but for more reliability he might have broken his duck.
Prost was tired of Renault's inability to put together a consistent challenge for either championship and was sacked at season's end after publicly criticising the team for their lack of development on the RE40. He would join
McLaren at the end of the year. The RE40 took four wins and three poles during the season. However, Prost enjoyed driving the RE40 and later commented that it was "''a lovely car ... we should have been World Champions 10 times over.''"
Cheever was also gone at the end of a frustrating season and would join
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
.
Alain Prost's win at the
Austrian Grand Prix would prove to be the French team's last win in their original run in Formula One, with the team failing to win a Grand Prix in either or before Renault pulled out of Grand Prix racing as a constructor at the end of 1985.
The RE40 was replaced by the first round of 1984 by the
RE50.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(
key) (note: results shown in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
References
Sources
*Dro, P. 2007. ''Close quarters''. Motor Sport, 83/12 (December 2007), 86-90
*
* (French)
*
*
Footnotes
External links
Lapping the old Zandvoort circuit in a Renault RE40, driven by Alain Prost (Video)
{{F1 cars 1983
RE40
1983 Formula One season cars