Because it is winter, and there is no F1-racing, I have been watching a lot of reviews and reading a lot of books about seasons of more than five years ago. And again something struck me as odd: the Renault F1-team (70's,80's) had excellent cars with dismal reliability. Renault had arguable the best car in 1979,1980,1981, absolutely the best in 1982... but unfortunately they seldom finished races.
Except...
in France. Where-ever the French Grand Prix was.
Dijon 1979? 1st and 3rd.
Paul Ricard 1980, 5th.
Dijon 1981: 1st and 4th.
Ricard 1982: 1st and 2nd.
Ricard 1983: 1st and 2nd.
Ricard 1984: 2nd and 4th.
Ricard 1985: 6th and 7th.
Now it is understandable that at home, the factory will put in some extra effort. Ferrari always cranked up their engines at Monza. But then you would get pole on Saturday and big clouds of blown engines on Sunday. But Renault managed in the French Grand Prix to crank up both the speed and the reliability. Reliability that usually was missing, and that cost them potentially a couple of championships.
Your thoughts, please.