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Lotus Renault R31

Team: James Allison (TD), Naoki Tokunaga (DTD), Tim Densham (CD), Dirk De Beer (HA), Gerard Lopez (Chairman), Eric Boullier (TP), Patrick Louis (COO), John Mardle (OD), Steve Nielsen (SD), Alan Permane (CRE)
Drivers: Robert Kubica (9), Vitaly Petrov (10)

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Renault R31

A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
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Donuts
1
Joined: 01 Jun 2010, 18:28

Re: Renault R31

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James Allison also mentioned that a lot of focus has been on the adjustable rear wing. A hint that they might have "tweaked" something? :shock:

By the way, I've read several teams talking about less downforce this year, but if I remember correctly, Eric Boulllier(I think it was before last season ended) said that the R31 allready had more downforce than the R30. Well, I guess we'll see as the season progresses... [-o<

One more thing! How much KERS experience did Renault F1 have in 2009? Any at all? I remember BMW-Sauber-F1 only had KERS for some tracks. Robert Kubica should'nt need too much time to adjust to it. As for Vitaly Petrov, we'll... maybe he is even better of without it? :wink: I guess reliability can be tested in the factory, so it should'nt be of too much worry, some teams are not even bringing their new cars for the first test. :!:
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raymondu999
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Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 07:31

Re: Renault R31

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I think what he might mean is maybe they made a rear wing design which only loses a little bit of downforce when it's retracted, while losing a lot of drag.

Also, I think the R31 CHASSIS would be a lot faster than the R30 chassis, but we have to deduct the downforce from the DDD. Renault had less experience than BMW if I'm not wrong. They only had it for a few races, then only had it back for Monza
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Donuts
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Joined: 01 Jun 2010, 18:28

Re: Renault R31

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raymondu999 wrote:I think what he might mean is maybe they made a rear wing design which only loses a little bit of downforce when it's retracted, while losing a lot of drag.
Not sure I understand, retracted as in activated? When it's activated, downforce is not an issue.

It's tricky(ofcourse), beacuse you need good top speed without activating the device, to get close enough to be able to activate the device. From what I understand, the "zone" for activating the device will be at a surten distance from the braking point on a straight.
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Donuts
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Joined: 01 Jun 2010, 18:28

Re: Renault R31

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Latest:

http://blog.lotusrenaultgp.com/?p=194
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Metal
Metal
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Joined: 18 May 2010, 07:31

Re: Renault R31

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Donuts could you give me the source where Boullier said that R31 has more downforce than R30. Cuz i only heard that it is more competetive. Thanks.

When the rear wing is being retracted the downforce doesnt matter raymondu, you do it only on the straights.
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Neno
Neno
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Joined: 31 May 2010, 01:41

Re: Renault R31

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Metal wrote:Donuts could you give me the source where Boullier said that R31 has more downforce than R30. Cuz i only heard that it is more competetive. Thanks.
I think they said this around Belgian GP .Actually they said that R31 had the same amount of downforce as R30 around August/September (Renault stopped developing R30 after Spa. So if R31 had the same amount of downforce in August as R30 in the end of the season then...) and they were and are still finding more so I won't be suprised if R31 has more downforce than R30. What's more interesting, they said that R31 will produce downforce in totaly different way than R30.
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Donuts
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Joined: 01 Jun 2010, 18:28

Re: Renault R31

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Metal wrote:Donuts could you give me the source where Boullier said that R31 has more downforce than R30. Cuz i only heard that it is more competetive. Thanks.
It was the Renault F1 Team Podcast, I don't think it's available any more. I can't find it text anywhere... sorry.
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Metal
Metal
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Joined: 18 May 2010, 07:31

Re: Renault R31

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Ok, np, thanks for the info guys.
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korzeniow
korzeniow
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 03:51
Location: Cracow/Poland

Re: Renault R31

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Donuts wrote:James Allison also mentioned that a lot of focus has been on the adjustable rear wing. A hint that they might have "tweaked" something? :shock:

By the way, I've read several teams talking about less downforce this year, but if I remember correctly, Eric Boulllier(I think it was before last season ended) said that the R31 allready had more downforce than the R30. Well, I guess we'll see as the season progresses... [-o<

One more thing! How much KERS experience did Renault F1 have in 2009? Any at all? I remember BMW-Sauber-F1 only had KERS for some tracks. Robert Kubica should'nt need too much time to adjust to it. As for Vitaly Petrov, we'll... maybe he is even better of without it? :wink: I guess reliability can be tested in the factory, so it should'nt be of too much worry, some teams are not even bringing their new cars for the first test. :!:
Bolded: No he didn't say that. There is no quote nor article stating such thing. It was just some forumer at autosport froum who stated this rumour, which was then quickly spread out by Renault/Kubica supporters over the internet.
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Boost
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Joined: 14 Jun 2010, 19:21

Re: Renault R31

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Metal wrote:Donuts could you give me the source where Boullier said that R31 has more downforce than R30. Cuz i only heard that it is more competetive. Thanks.

When the rear wing is being retracted the downforce doesnt matter raymondu, you do it only on the straights.
You can actually only use it on one specified straight on each circuit. The wing then moves back into downforce position the moment the brakes are hit for the following corner.
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madly
madly
6
Joined: 11 Feb 2010, 23:20

Re: Renault R31

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From Twitter:
It's alive! The R31 took its first breath this afternoon as we had a successful fire-up of chassis number 1.

http://yfrog.com/h33zhgj
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madly
madly
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Joined: 11 Feb 2010, 23:20

Re: Renault R31

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Image

Link to high res: http://a.yfrog.com/img615/9379/3zhg.jpg
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Timstr
Timstr
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Joined: 25 Jan 2004, 12:09

Re: Renault R31

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So what's up with what looks like an extra air intake left of the main air intake?
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JohnsonsEvilTwin
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010, 11:51
Location: SU 419113

Re: Renault R31

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They could be using last years shell
More could have been done.
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adrianjordan
24
Joined: 28 Feb 2010, 11:34
Location: West Yorkshire, England

Re: Renault R31

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It looks like a more extreme version of what Williams (I think) had or their 2010 car...
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