Renault reveals RS16 in black launch livery

2016 F1 season

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Renault 2016 F1 team launch

    Renault has revealed a striking black launch livery for its 2016 F1 challenger, the RS16.

    The French manufacturer is competing in F1 as a full factory entrant for the first time since 2011 under the new name of Renault Sport Formula One Team.

    The team’s car is based on the E23 it raced last year as Lotus, but with Renault power instead of Mercedes. “The RS16 is an evolution of our previous cars,” explained designer Nick Chester, “particularly our 2015 car, but incorporating the Renault power unit.” Renault said the power unit produces around 875bhp.

    The late confirmation of Renault’s takeover means the team faced “quite a change to architecture right at the last minute,” according to Chester.

    “It’s been a real challenge to incorporate the Renault Sport power unit. We made the decision very late to put the Renault Sport power unit in and the amount of work you have to do to re-sculpt the chassis, change the cooling geometry, all in the matter of a few months, has been a really big effort for Enstone. But now we’re all the way through the crash testing it’s been a really good effort.”

    Chester confirmed the team intends to continue using the E23-derived car while making an early start on plans for 2017, when a sizeable change in the regulations is currently planned.

    “The technical challenges for 2016 are partly rebuilding the team, so getting strength back in the areas where we were weak, and then improving what’s hopefully a reasonable baseline car through the year and developing our strength,” he said.

    “Then as we get into 2017 the regulations are a huge change and that’s a car we want to start early, look at all the concepts we might want to bring to 2017.”

    Renault first entered F1 as a team between 1977 and 1985, then returned between 2002 and 2011, during which time it took the constructors’ championship twice and saw its driver Fernando Alonso win two drivers’ titles.

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    90 comments on “Renault reveals RS16 in black launch livery”

    1. They forgot to paint the car!!!!

          1. @keithcollantine and the old black and yellow minardis. I like it but another dark coloured livery.

        1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          3rd February 2016, 12:58

          It reminds me of supernova F3000 cars

        2. After seing these new photos, there is actually one thing I like about this livery @keithcollantine: the “honeycomb efect” at the back! If only they had put those hexagons in yellow to make the car a little less bland…

          1. @gordess

            Absolutely! I was expecting much more yellow – is the team thinking bland is beautiful or bland is successful? But this is an interim livery. Hopefully the arrival of some sponsors would make it more attractive.

        3. Looks like Pirelli’s test car…

        4. F1 Fanatic gets extra credit points for being one of the few outlets to accurately report that this is an “interim” livery! Kudos Keith! I appreciate the high level of accuracy you provide!

      1. The cynic in me thinks they kept the black to save on the cost of having to repaint their lorry trailers and motor home….

        1. @BTB

          Good thinking…that could well be the case!

    2. This had better be the test livery….what a waste of potential for something exciting if this is their race colours.

      1. sometimes i think that the people doing the livery has forgot about colors like , yellow, white, green, pink and so on.

      2. Well, Jérome Stoll left the door open for another livery at the start of the championship so fingers crossed!

        1. It will change for Melbourne *sigh of relief*

          1. Is that confirmed? Because they only said “You guess!”…

          2. I’m predicting it will change……from black to very very very very dark grey. Not getting my hopes up but hopefully we’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was really hoping they would at least draw from the Formula E livery

      3. The article above that you failed to read clearly states it is an “interim” livery. That means temporary/subject to change.

    3. Wiz Khalifa approved.

    4. I would prefer more yellow stripes or something. its good looking in black but …. no just no

    5. A strikingly horrible livery… they didn’t even bother…

      Was it really THAT HARD to add a splash of white? just a line somewhere… Something! this lack of imagination is beyond belief. And it’s a trend that applies to every team!

      1. i loved the way he said the livery is good and complemented the guy who did it. is just black! even i could do that xD

        1. @marussi it’s like when you used Paint and you used the bucket wrong and the whole thing became 1 colour. They just didn’t bother doing a design.

          I wonder, tho, if it has to do with the fact that the PDVSA deal went down days before the launch.

          1. That’s a fair point about PDVSA, I hadn’t thought about that.

      2. @fer-no65 I disagree, well for at least one team, Red Bull. They have many colors, its just that we have gotten so used to them and it looks gray in our mind. But their car is colorful

        1. Red Bull are the worse with their lack of imagination. Red Bull is a company that supports every sort of extreme sports, even space jumpers. Their marketing department does a terrific job, putting the Red Bull logos in every corner at exciting events, and they show themselves as a fun and bold company. Very aggresive marketing.

          Yet they have never changed the livery of their 2 teams since they entered the sport. Their liveries are way too boring now: colourful yeah, but it’s been the same for 10 years. A camo-livery for them seemed a lot more appropiate with their brand but that didn’t happen either!

          1. The RB1 and RB11 liveries and colours are really quite different. Of course the fact that the Red Bull logo and the words Red Bull are common to both means there is similarity but given that the main point of the exercise is to build the Red Bull brand it’s hardly a surprise.

            Now Ferrari, that’s a team who haven’t really had a livery change for a while.

      3. INTERIM livery, sigh

        1. at the time of my comment, we didn’t know it was an interim livery, mate ;)

      4. I think the point made by BTB could well be the reason…Just a hunch, judging by its similarity to the Lotus colours!

    6. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      3rd February 2016, 12:50

      Now we just need Haas to “surprise” us with another black or grey livery. BORING

    7. It would be cool if they added splashes of color from their old liveries, i.e. blue from the Alonzo era, and yellow from the Kubica era…

    8. I wonder if by the time we get to Melbourne, the colours will be inverted.

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        3rd February 2016, 12:56

        Thats my thought too @gordess
        They did say you will see come Melbourne, but the elegance of the design will remain.

        1. So basically, still black @fullcoursecaution. Or as @celicadion23 says “very very very very dark grey”

          1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
            3rd February 2016, 13:01

            Im ignorantly hoping they flip it to all yellow with dashes of black instead *fingers in ears*

            Or maybe Haas will save they day and go Ferrari-badge yellow. If they adopt the Nascar livery it will look like the Manors

            1. NART! We want Haas in NART colours! WAY more appropriate given the link to Ferrari and the team’s patronage.

            2. Haas has said a few times the car won’t be yellow and consider Haas company colours I believe him.

      2. @philereid Yellow tires with black stripes sounds really cool.

    9. Can see Kevin brought some money with him… (Jack Jones)

      1. @brawngp But they didn’t eve manage to get the positioning of the logo correctly… You can hardly read the name!

        1. ColdFly F1 (@)
          3rd February 2016, 14:33

          I thought it was Back Bones!
          That domain is for sale; somebody could create some free advertising ;-)

    10. I have seen the majority of people saying that they don’t like it, but personally, I quite like it. It’s an improvement on the Lotus liveries at least.

      1. I like it too.

      2. me too! this is how you do a black livery!!!

        now take notes, McLaren…

    11. To me its obvious that they chose black color as they dont want to give away too much on their new car. Im sure that they will change the livery before the Melbourne GP.

      1. What’s to give away? It’s basically entirely last years car.

    12. In the light it looked like there were some splashes of purple at the back of the car. Here’s the screenshot https://pp.vk.me/c630126/v630126256/11687/b4kHOTYE4so.jpg

      1. That looked weird but i like it!

        1. ColdFly F1 (@)
          3rd February 2016, 14:36

          In that image it looks great, but only if the tarmac were yellow! @albedo

      2. good lord, that looks even more horrible!

      3. Judging by the photos above, that’s actually a matte black. Which I think is rather cool, truth be told. Don’t really see many racing cars messing with the two different finishes.

        1. Very good point – it’s just some color aberrations going on. The tops of the tires are purple too………

      4. That might look cool in sunlight. Or really bad. We’ll see

      5. @albedo It’s matte black

    13. Black and yellow is a good combination but we need more yellow!!!
      Hopefully it is an interim livery. Hopefully…

    14. Wish the colours were inverted.

    15. I completely disagree with many of the comments here:

      I love this livery! Simple and elegant.

    16. I like the nose of the car

      1. And good to see K-Mag standing next to it

        1. The Blade Runner (@)
          3rd February 2016, 13:49

          I second that.

      2. I’m pretty sure that’s the nose the E23 ran in Abu Dhabi.

    17. :D This is excellent to my eyes. Perfect fundation for a “test” livery. What they need… is a fat yellow sponsor to put on the side…

      So it all starts then. First car to be revealed… Will there be some video feed from tests? It is 2016, everyone and your mamma can provide a video stream these days, maybe even F1? Or is FOM banning them from doing so?

    18. I am really afraid of the Infiniti logo on the back… I look forward to a proper yellow/black livery from Renault, but I fear with Infiniti on board, it might end up being purple, and thus very easy to screw up…

    19. Duncan Snowden
      3rd February 2016, 13:36

      I have to say I’m slightly surprised by the negative reaction. Sure, it’s another black car, but it keeps a link with the black-and-gold of Lotus, and it’s certainly one of the tidiest designs ever to come out of Enstone. I like the restraint; the yellow on the insides of the endplates, for example. Granted, it might not look as good with different compound tyres on, but at least it doesn’t look as if they just let the mechanics loose with the paint and sponsor stickers at the last minute. That team’s had some horrific liveries in its time.

      It’s not spectacularly exciting, maybe, but it’s hardly bad. And yeah, it’ll probably change come Melbourne.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        3rd February 2016, 14:01

        Sadly, that appears to be the best we can hope for these days – not a disaster….

        I cannot remember a single livery from the last 5 years that was even a patch on some of the fan-designed liveries that appear online which look exciting, cutting edge, fun and striking…

    20. I think it looks FANTASTIC

    21. I can’t lie but I was sad when I saw the livery. But I don’t think it’s the final one, I hope they will come with something else for the 1st race. Same with Haas, since they never said it’s the livery when they presented the car.

    22. I like this livery, looks very classy and cool. Especially the honeycomb pattern at the back and the distinctive yellow stripe in the middle.

      1. Seeing the video it is 100% clear that the car will not look like this in Melbourne. Even though he puts it as a question he stated that only the “elegance” of this livery will remain, so I almost sure they are looking into another livery but want to keep it a secret or surprise. It might be dependent on future sponsors too…

        On the other hand, McLaren was supposedly using their dull liveries for testing only, but have carried them into the racing season too (with minor changes)

    23. Why not a yellow car? Black is boring…

    24. What’s up with the negative reactions? The livery is elegant and understated. Perhaps a dash more yellow would make it more interesting but the matte black detail is very nice!

      1. It’s that kind of detail that makes it awesome. It’s not like they’ve slapped a load of black paint on it… there is a whole matt black design there on top too! The problem is, the CGI images do it no justice. On TV this car will look amazing!

      2. Black is considered an aggressive colour, so one shouldn’t be surprised to see some. I don’t have any problem with that colour scheme.

    25. If you look at the ground level front on view of the RS16, it looks like they removed the rear wheels before they took the photograph.

    26. Guys leave the elegant livery alone for a second… that’s their 2016 car? It’s hard to tell the details as everything is black, but the team saying it’s practically last year’s car with a different engine makes me fear for them. With Magnussen and Ocon I now like Palmer more! Then again the car is really pretty, and I hope it’s a regular points contender.

    27. If they swapped the black for a dark blue, it could resemble the old Tyrell Elf’s from the 70’s. That would be pretty cool.

    28. Dark livery yes, sure beats all them bright coloured cars on the grid. Hope Renault don’t do something stupid like change their livery to yellow again, now that would be just dull. Sigh.

    29. I really like the mate honeycomb on the rear. I think mate paint it’s something never seen before on a F1 car. Anyone knows about a precedent?

    30. Scott Campbell
      3rd February 2016, 21:03

      More sponsors than Mclaren lol!

    31. I predict the yellow bits will be black, and the black bits will be yellow…
      Attractively shaped car again, like the Lotus last year was up there with the Merc as one of the nicest.

    32. Reading between the lines, it sounds like the team are saying “expect us to be at the back of the gird this year”.

    33. Those matt bits! Looks good. Infact I’m a little disappointed it’s an interim livery, because I’ll bet anything they’ll make it worse on the real thing…

      I think a lot of the disappointment is down to the amount of black liveries we’ve had in F1 lately. But this for me is much better.

    34. I reckon they’ll flip this livery when it comes to the final one. Where the yellow is it will turn to black and where there’s black will turn to yellow. i hope so

    35. interesting comments….black is not a colour!!!! black absorbs all light.

      1. Black is a shade of grey, as is white.

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