What is going on at Renault?

[jens]

Well. The reigning World Champion is in trouble. Some say that Honda is the biggest embarrasement of the season, but I think Renault is a strong rival to them for that "title" and their fall has been even deeper taking into account that at which position they have been in previous years. Last year Renault finished 1-2 in Malaysia with Fisi scoring his last (will it stay his last?) win in F1:
But now Fisi has already said that Renault is not going to win any races this season in "normal" circumstances:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57903

Before Malaysia some expected Renault to close the gap on the first ones, but in reality it has become worse. Renault was unable to match even Rosberg's Williams and Fisichella barely managed to beat Toyota. What is going on? There have to be several factors, also besides so-called Alonso effect. Some point out that the Michelin-Renault co-operation was very strong and by now they have lost it. But what else? Renault has the smallest budget among the factory teams. Maybe now it's time, when it begins to become a disadvantage? Arguably Renault's budget for this season is even smaller than in previous years that has made their task to compete against other factories even tougher.

Btw, I think there is an interesting parallel with Renault's F1 history. Recall what happened to Renault after Prost had left the team after 1983. The team had been in title contention and after that they started dramatically dropping backwards and their F1 campaign ended ingloriously after 1985. Maybe we are going to see a similar scenario again? In Prost's role is now Alonso and again there aren't many other major changes besides their #1 leaving the team. And again Renault has dropped significantly backwards. In 2005 Carlos Ghosn become the chief executive of Renault and Nissan Motors and he is said not to be very interested in motorsports. In 2005 he said about leaving F1: "As long as we are winning, then there isn't any problem." But now Renault is not winning any more. Is Renault - like in the mid-80s - again unable to dig out of the hole and leaves F1 with disappointment after for example 2008?

[andreag]

Totally right. Good analysis.

[F1boat]

Sh1t happens even to the best. Look Ferrari in 2005 or McLaren last year. They might fall, but they might strike back as well.

[Erki]

Renault to sportscars - yes, that would do it. *drool*

[Ian McC]

Tyres and drivers mainly I would think

[philipbain]

It's all down to the tyres really, and the fact that Fisi simply isnt team leader material. Reanult over the past few seasons have always favoured a heavy weight bias towards the rear of the car (never less than 45:55 front to rear when they were running Michelins) which worked the Michelin tyres well and fundementally dictated how the car worked. Then to go from this to the Bridgestone tyres which require a much more even weight distribution is a quite fundemental change which will take a lot more than just moving the ballast around to solve as the dynamics of the whole car were previously based on this heavilly rear biased distribution. As Flav said - as soon as everyone put bridgestones onto last year's cars McLaren were immediately quciker than Renault

[stevewf1]

The Alonso factor has had a huge effect, they were always punching above their weight the last two seasons and it is a measure of how good Alonso is to win two titles with them. They are a much smaller team than McLaren and Ferrari and that is why Alonso left as he knew long term success lay elsewhere. Fisi simply isnt good enough to lead a world champion team, Flavio should have put Webber in one of those cars as he seems a good team player, and would at least qualify that Renault on the front 3 rows of the grid.

[jens]

Fisi simply isnt good enough to lead a world champion team, Flavio should have put Webber in one of those cars as he seems a good team player, and would at least qualify that Renault on the front 3 rows of the grid.

Jaguar, Williams and now Red Bull periods do not indicate that assumption that Webber should be a good team player.

[jens]

By the way, to continue with the thread - I presume that Sakhir would be a difficult event for Renault. Why?

In Fisi's case there has been much discussion that how much his drive reflects Renault's true form. Well, Albert Park and Sepang suit Fisi quite well, so I suppose that on those circuits he took practically maximum out of the car. But it's a different story at Sakhir!

In 2004 he was struggling there, making a spin and getting beaten by Massa.
Both in 2005 and 2006 he also lacked of speed. Well, he had mechanical problems on both occasions, but he lacked of speed already in qualifying, being lucky to get into Top10 and was fighting for the last points, before problems started affecting his performance in the race.

I suppose that Fisi should be happy if he manages to score any points at Sakhir and Heikki might have a good chance to beat the Italian for the first time this season. Sakhir might be a chance for Toyota-powered cars to close the gap on Renault.

[Mikeall]

The Alonso factor has had a huge effect, they were always punching above their weight the last two seasons and it is a measure of how good Alonso is to win two titles with them. They are a much smaller team than McLaren and Ferrari and that is why Alonso left as he knew long term success lay elsewhere. Fisi simply isnt good enough to lead a world champion team, Flavio should have put Webber in one of those cars as he seems a good team player, and would at least qualify that Renault on the front 3 rows of the grid.

Webber seems to be a bit like Fisi in that he can be really fast at some races he likes anonymous at others and never quite gets the results he should. Both of them can still work on it.

This season Fisichella has got the maximum out of both races and has beaten everyone he should and some cars he shouldn't have based on qualifying pace whereas Webber has for whatever reason has not maximised his chances. Having said that what would Alonso have done driving a Renault or even a Red Bull Renault.