It's a tense time in F1 heading into the 2014, which sees the biggest overhaul in technical and engine specifications in the sport in over a decade, and with manufacturers, teams and drivers alike wondering how they will fare in the upcoming season.
Having powered Red Bull to a fourth world championship in 2013, the spotlight is on just how well Renault will make the transition to the new era. The French manufacturer is also looking 12 months down the road to the return of rivals Honda to the fray as partners with the McLaren F1 team in 2015.
"One could argue it's a good advantage and one could argue it's not," Renault's head of track operations Remi Taffin said when asked whether he felt that Honda's extra year of development will give the Japanese manufacturer the upper hand in the longer term.
"They will not have a car running [in 2014] and I can't see that not being detrimental," he said. "[But] they don't have to focus on 2014 and they are fully focused on '15.
"You have one more year to study your engine and maybe you could end up with a 2015 engine that is much more developed," he conceded. "But at the same time we are going to be developing the engine for 2015.
"We are already working on 2015 and it's very similar.
"It's just a matter of resources," he explained. "They [can] put all their resources, money and people on '15 whereas we have to share."
But Taffin insisted that he'd rather be in Renault's shoes at this point that Honda, despite the pressure on resources and Honda having that extra year to plan and develop.
"Even if you have the best of everything back at the factory, it's always on the car where you validate everything you have been studying through the winter and over the last three or four years," he pointed out.
Source;
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/199387/1/honda-may-benefit-from-delaying-f1-return-to-2015.html
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