You cannot understand the 2023 Renault RS23 without the DF037. The lessons learned from the pneumatic valves and the direct injection failures directly fed into the Renault Sport RS2025 V6 hybrid concept.
Moreover, the DF037 taught Renault a brutal lesson: Reliability is a form of power. When Renault returned as an engine supplier in 1989 (Williams), they abandoned high-boost insanity for a torquey, reliable V10. That engine won Alain Prost the 1993 championship. df037 renault
The official reason: Renault pulled out of F1 as a constructor at the end of 1986. The company’s board, reeling from the cost of the turbo war and the death of Elio de Angelis in testing, decided to focus on the V10 program for 1989 (the legendary RS1). You cannot understand the 2023 Renault RS23 without
Unofficially, the DF037 was killed because it was too fragile. In 17 private test sessions, the engine completed a full race distance only once. The twin-turbo setup caused "boost oscillation" in the intake plenum, which cracked the intake manifold welds repeatedly. Every time the boost hit 4.5 bar, the engine would try to tear itself apart. When Renault returned as an engine supplier in
Renault scuttled the project. The six existing DF037 engines were placed in wooden crates, sealed, and stored in a warehouse near Lyon. Most were scrapped in 1992 during a corporate cost-cutting purge. A single surviving short-block is rumored to reside in the Renault Classic collection, though the company refuses to display it.
If this were a modern Renault performance camshaft or engine build: