ING Renault F1 Team Fan Site

After a solid opening day yesterday, the team remains in Jerez to continue with its test and development programme. Nelson is in the car today to begin the first of two days testing with the team, taking over the cockpit of the R28 from Romain Grosjean.

Yesterday's programme went well and the team was pleased with the day's work. It was only Romain's second day of proper testing with the team and so the priority was to get him comfortable with the car, but there was also some R&D work in the afternoon, which gave the team some promising leads. Romain loved every minute of yesterday and he had a big a smile on his face for the whole day. Nothing comes close to the sheer thrill of driving an F1 car, not even a GP2 car.

The scorching heat yesterday (45�C) meant that the track conditions were quite difficult. The heat tends to cause the tyres to lose grip quite quickly and that made finding a good balance with the car was quite difficult. It was also tough for the mechanics, who were glad of the garage air conditioning (a rare treat). Still, it was valuable to run in these conditions because the upcoming races, such as Hungary, always tend to be pretty hot.

Nelson's programme gets underway this morning. He arrived bright and early this morning and certainly has a spring in his step after last weekend. He will concentrate on improving the set-up of the car this morning and will then begin some brake testing and suspension development work in the afternoon.

Follow the action on the blog today, with updated times at around 13:00 this afternoon and at the end of the day.

Another great day. Good luck Nelson. Again, i'm first to write...work rulz

Hello good morning all,
I'v heard that the team was testing today the 2009 aero package, I guess I've heard wrong, but anyone can tell be if it will be tested this week?

No, there's no 09 aero package today, manustudio, but there will be some slick tyres tested tomorrow.

By the way, I haven't forgotten you, so here is some roadshow news. So far the only firm dates are for Johannesburg this coming weekend(26-27 July) with Lucas and Nelson both attending.

As I get any more dates confirmed I will let you know.

Any upgrades being tested?

The front wing in picture N.3 is that the new wing? Are the top flap middle vertical elements larger?

Someone knows when renault plans to introduce some larger modifications??

Hi guys, enjoy this beautifull day and good luck with testing.
RF1PP, you said, Nothing comes close to the sheer thrill of driving an F1 car, not even a GP2 car. Do you have experience driving an F1 car?

Sadly not, NandoFan. I was simply conveying what Romain said to me when he got out of the car at the end of the day. His beaming face said it all. These are surely the most exciting cars to drive on the planet!

¿What about the McLaren's four-paddle steering wheel?

¿is Renault working on it?

According to Mark Hughes of Daily Telegraphs it allows to change the engine's torque setting to "allow the car always to have the most favourable engine torque setting for each gear, thus giving the driver a tool for limiting wheelspin out of slow corners without then suffering a reduction in power in the higher gears, where wheelspin is not an issue".

I can imagine RF1PP.

No times yet from the morning session ?

Oops, I missed that. Times will follow around 13:00.

@11, Hoss,
I think there has been an update on the R28 steering wheel also. I saw something about it.

RF1PP, could you confirm that the R28 steering wheel has 2 extra new paddles?

My question is, knowing badly that the R-28 spends(passes) it in the career(race), because they are not done poles by few petrol to have clean air? It(he,she) is to say classifications mas arrives possibly, with 3 or four stops, in order that they do not suffer so much the tires

@manu: I don't think RF1PP will answer technical questions for obvious reasons.

@olympus: Are you asking if it should be better making 3 or 4 pitstops because of the tyre problems? And if the quali results suffered because of not driving in clean air?

I read that last weekend at Hockenheim there has been a poker game, first with Fernando, Sutil, Barichello and Schumi joined too (don't know if Kubica was there already). But then Bernie came into the Force India motorhome where they were playing and asked if they wanted to play in the Hockenheim Paddock Club.
Kubica and his manager Daniele Morelli, Heidfeld and his manager Werner Heinz, Flavio , Fisichella, Vijay Mallya and Bernie himself all put down $1000 a piece and also took part.

RF1PP: Do you know any results or who walked away with the most cash ?

The times here at 13:00

1 DEL 1:19.061 55
2 RAI 1:19.446 38
3 VET 1:19.517 42
4 ROS 1:19.861 59
5 WEB 1:20.021 52
6 WUR 1:20.416 33
7 TRU 1:20.534 51
8 LIU 1:20.577 56
9 PIQ 1:20.827 57
10 KLI 1:20.850 52

oooh, I see Pete! lol

The best of luck; clearly the team is going in the right direction, so here's to the test leading to a great double result in Hungary. One must hope...

RF1PP, you probably can't answer this but i'll ask anyway. Do you know if the team is leaning towards the flywheel style KERS or the battery type, like the ones found in hybrid road cars?

Well sound like Nelson "Almost won" last weeked.

"Hockenheim winner Lewis Hamilton only narrowly averted a disastrous finish to last Sunday's German Grand Prix.
The championship leader ultimately delivered a second consecutive dominant win for his McLaren team, but he very nearly threw it away in what would have been an embarrassing gaffe at engine partner Mercedes-Benz's home race.
Britain's Independent newspaper reports that Hamilton very nearly crashed his McLaren into the back of the similarly Mercedes-powered safety car following Timo Glock's mid-race accident.
The near-miss was not captured by the TV cameras, but on lap 41 in the stadium section, as he slowed down and then sped up in readiness for the restart, Hamilton missed hitting the safety car by a margin of 'literally only inches', the newspaper said, citing eyewitnesses."

Obviously BMW is going for the battery type KERS.
http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3 ...

@ newna,
Also RedBull and Mclaren had simular problems with batteries exploding in their factories testing KERS

@RF1PP
Thanks for the info and insight you have given us so far, very interesting stuff.

We know Nelson is using the groved tyres today, but I read that McLaren and Ferrari set their best times using slicks. Probably difficult, but is there any way to split the times into those set with groved and those set with slicks? Thanks.

@manuStudio there is also a danger of electrocution from these batteries especially in an accident.

Searching the net I found a nice illustration of the German GP podium.
http://colunistas.ig.com.br/flaviogomes/ ...

1
http://i37.tinypic.com/znr57n.jpg
2
http://i36.tinypic.com/1zlb286.jpg

Come on Nelson, lets have some fun and scare Hamilton again in Hungary!!

? found this?
http://i35.tinypic.com/ilb1hl.jpg

The final times:

1 VET 1:18.843 100
2 DEL 1:19.061 122
3 RAI 1:19.446 76
4 ROS 1:19.861 112
5 WEB 1:20.021 105
6 WUR 1:20.416 77
7 TRU 1:20.534 81
8 LIU 1:20.577 102
9 PIQ 1:20.827 99
10 KLI 1:20.850 89

Over all it has been a solid day�s work for the team. Difficult to read too much into the times because some of the drivers were running on slicks. And the scorching heat we had here again made it difficult in the afternoon. Still the team pushed ahead with its development work and completed its programme for the day. You can read Nelson�s comments from today on the team site.

Sorry that I cannot cast any more light on the technical discussions you guys are having. That�s just the way it is as the work done by the team in the development phase remains confidential. What I can tell you is that the team did try out some braking solutions and also some suspension updates.

Also, thought I would point you in the direction of the latest podcasr. You can hear the thoughts of Technical Director Bob Bell and Chief Race Engineer Alan Permane as they reflect on the German Grand Prix.

Some more neat picture from the German Gp.
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/s ...
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/s ...
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/s ...
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/s ...
http://www.formula1.com/photos/597x478/s ...

haha @ Jenson "fluked" it! You gotta love Alan Permane...

I think only Renault fans remember that we would have won it by a mile if it weren't for that blasted wheelnut!

Yeah just listened to the podcast. It seems like the team has been 'woken' up a little by the podium; I think more significantly at how close we are to 4th and how we are compared to BMW.

I do hope Fernando gets a good result in Hungary, firstly because I think he was hard done by last year (but lets not go into that) and secondly because its a little unfair that everyone is turning on him after one bad race when he's clearly put so much effort into it every other race,and getting most of the results (or potential results barring car problems) by himself. That's not to discredit nelson of course, just that you feel Fernando will somewhat be cheated of all those missed opportunities otherwise.

Anyhoo, another race, another chance. Hungary is always good and bad for Fernando, so we'll see what it brings. I hope Nelson can carry momentum - at least psychologically.