What is going on at Renault?
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?
What's going on at Renault - Is it the tyres?
Pat Symonds -
Quote:
"We are well aware that something is badly wrong, but we don't know what yet, even though we've already eliminated some of the possibilities."
When asked whether the aero impact of the wider Bridgestone tyres could be a factor, Symonds said: "I suspect that this may end up having some significance when we do find the answers.
"It is a fact that we did lose aero performance when we fitted these tyres to the 2006 car. Also, in the past, when there was more freedom of what you could do with tyres, we used to do lots of wind tunnel testing of tyres - and that's now closed off.
"We pulled that loss back but perhaps in doing so we have fallen back in other areas. I look at the Honda and wonder if it is not exactly the same thing.
"After Brazil last year we went to Jerez to test. I don't think there's much doubt that our 2006 car was faster than McLaren's 2006 car. Yet when we went to the Jerez test on the Bridgestones, suddenly the 2006 McLaren was faster than the 2006 Renault."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57963
Jarno Trulli -
Quote:
"When you change the tyres, consequently the aerodynamic of the car changes," he said. "Look at Renault, they have lost out a lot while McLaren have gained a little bit. The only one who didn't change was Ferrari. Aerodynamically, that is the first thing, and everything else is related."
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57968