Reactions – Renault Lacking Aspiration

Renault began today its last three-day test session as part of its winter preparation. Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet were both on track at the Barcelona circuit, for what will already be the third running session on this circuit this year.

The members of the Renault F1 Team’s racing team traveled to the Catalunya track this week to participate in this final work session before the official kickoff of the 2008 season in less than three weeks. The team took advantage of this day of resumption to prepare for the first Grand Prix of the season in Australia and therefore focused mainly on race procedures.

After having seen its development program greatly shortened last week due to bad weather, the team once again started this day of resumption on a wet track this morning. It was necessary to wait until the middle of the session today to be able to fit dry tires. After an overview of the track conditions available to them this morning, Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet both worked on race procedures this morning.

Fernando Alonso: « We mainly focused on pit stop practice today and everything went smoothly. It’s crucial that everyone is ready by the start in Australia. The track was wet this morning, as it was last week already, but that didn’t affect our program and we are satisfied this evening with the work that has been accomplished ».

Nelson Piquet: « It was an opportunity today to work on different race procedures and to prepare for the first race of the season. We did a few runs on a wet track this morning as it was planned in our schedule and as part of the procedures we needed to repeat. This allowed the engineers to gather some reference points regarding the different strategic options available to them. Then, we focused on procedural tests. At the end of the day, we worked a little on performance and on several setup solutions that we will further explore tomorrow. »

Afternoon, as track conditions were slowly improving, the team switched to refueling tests and completed nearly 20 simulations. Testing will continue tomorrow and Wednesday, hoping that the weather forecast improves so that the team can get the most out of this final work session.

Christian Silk, Chief Test Engineer: « The track conditions were not fantastic again today, but it did not affect our program. We carried out race procedure tests this morning and refueling simulations in the afternoon. Everything went well. At the end of the session, we worked on the car’s balance, and again everything went smoothly. It was therefore a successful first day of work, which should allow us to make good progress tomorrow. »

Based on the Renault F1 Team