<< Prev Page 2 of 2 Unfortunately, the RE40 was not ready in time for the opening rounds of the World Championship so team leader Alain Prost was forced to race an updated RE 30 for one Grand Prix, while Eddie Cheever had to make do with the previous year's car for two rounds. Prost debuted the RE40 at the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach. The tight track was not really suited to the very fast RE40 and Prost finished a lowly 11th after starting 8th.
For the all-important French Grand Prix, the Renault team arrived at full fighting strength. The RE40 felt right at home on the high speed Paul Ricard track as Prost and Cheever qualified first and second. They would finish the race first and third respectively with Prost beating closest rival Nelson Piquet by nearly half a minute. This was the start of a strong run of results, which saw Prost score additional victories in the Belgian, British and Austrian Grands Prix.
Sadly, after winning round 11 in Austria, things started to unwind for Prost and the Renault team. Whereas Piquet's Brabham team had opted to continue development, Renault had been more conservative, freezing the RE40's specification halfway through the year. In addition to losing ground on the track, several turbo related failures meant Prost finished only one of the last four rounds. He ended the year second, just two points behind Piquet, who had won just three races against Prost's four.
For no fault of his own, Prost had lost the World Championship, which looked to be his until the very last rounds of the year. Frustrated about the reliability issues, he left the team for McLaren at the end of the year. Renault continued to soldier on but no World Championship would ever be won with the V6 that had introduced the turbo engine to Formula 1. The RE40 came closest to win the coveted silver ware of all the Renault turbo cars. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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Unfortunately, the RE40 was not ready in time for the opening rounds of the World Championship so team leader Alain Prost was forced to race an updated RE 30 for one Grand Prix, while Eddie Cheever had to make do with the previous year's car for two rounds. Prost debuted the RE40 at the United States Grand Prix West at Long Beach. The tight track was not really suited to the very fast RE40 and Prost finished a lowly 11th after starting 8th.