Renault R29

[Roger the knife]

Hmmmm.. maybe Alonso is on the verge of making the experts "eat some crow"

Testtijden Update: 13:20
coureur team wagen tijd verschil #
1. S. Bourdais Toro Rosso STR3 1:17.472 73 pit
2. F. Alonso Renault R29 1:19.846 +2.374 75 pit
3. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-24 1:20.263 +2.791 42 pit
4. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB5 1:21.971 +4.499 9 pit
5. K. Nakajima Williams FW31 2:39.999 +82.527 34 pit

Courtesy F1today.nl

[vyselegend]

What are those tyres? Full wets? from last year or this one?
Did Alonso record his 1'20"115 with those? (rain tyres on the dry makes no sense, but over one lap they are kind of super super soft compound...)

[Henning]

Don't the teams only have a limited number of tyres available? If there were investigating cooling or something else non-tyre/grip related, I can see that they may use some "left-over" tyres from last year.

Possible? (...or shaddupayaface!)

[Metar]

These look a lot like wets to me - the rears have more grooves on them than the dry tyres had last year..

[axle]

Hmmmm.. maybe Alonso is on the verge of making the experts "eat some crow"

Testtijden Update: 13:20
coureur team wagen tijd verschil #
1. S. Bourdais Toro Rosso STR3 1:17.472 73 pit
2. F. Alonso Renault R29 1:19.846 +2.374 75 pit
3. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-24 1:20.263 +2.791 42 pit
4. M. Webber Red Bull Racing RB5 1:21.971 +4.499 9 pit
5. K. Nakajima Williams FW31 2:39.999 +82.527 34 pit

Courtesy F1today.nl

Blimey that is good...begs 3 questions.
1) Fuel loads. Are Renault the first or last to run light?
2) Is that nose illegal or not?
3) Have we all been hoodwinked?

[Metar]

I hope they're pulling an Alain Prost and not a ProstF1.

I mean, it's the fastest 2009-time set so far, but not by more than two-three tenths: It's very possible, I'd reckon, with the right weather and the right setup. The STR went faster than usual too, so it could've been a very grippy surface today..


I wonder, why is that rule even in place (The one apparently banning this nose)? The nostalgia-inducing noses of the early '90s were in that zone... I understand they want to ban aero-complications there, but what about actual structures?

[spaman]

Can´t imagine, that full wets would be faster than slicks in the first place. Besides this, the fastest lap was achieved in a 9 lap stint with more or less constantly high 1:19:8xx and low 1:20s which definitely would not be achievable with full wets.

I believe Renault was sandbagging. Part of this was cancelling the Barcelona tests. Funny thing about them waiting till today is, that the other teams all will be testing next week so that there will be no time left to adopt Renault´s aero package and test it before leaving for Australia.

Somehow cool.

[Metar]

I think the Wets have nothing to do with the fastest lap - after all, they may be softer, but the contact-patch is still smaller, and they disintegrate quite quickly...

[kilcoo316]

Besides this, the fastest lap was achieved in a 9 lap stint with more or less constantly high 1:19:8xx and low 1:20s which definitely would not be achievable with full wets.

Really?

That is gold info there! =D>


(is there a website with a full chart of every laptime then?)

[spaman]

Besides this, the fastest lap was achieved in a 9 lap stint with more or less constantly high 1:19:8xx and low 1:20s which definitely would not be achievable with full wets.

Really?

That is gold info there! =D>


(is there a website with a full chart of every laptime then?)

Not actually with a full chart. But you can easily find out about the stints by just following the live coverage. That´s what I do sometimes. http://directo.thef1.es/tests/

The other thing - the theory that the nose is illegal seems wrong to me. First of all because Art 3.11.2 defines an area 100-200mm above the referance plane which I believe is the floor of the car. I assume that the side skirts are not within this area.

[Moanlower]

Where are those criticasters now ??

It's all about making the most of it. The car, limited time, and not only spotting a problem but being able to address it and fix it in a blink of an eye.

[Shaddock]

Why would you spend all this time and limited testing running a nose that you knew was illegal?

If teams had unlimited testing time, fine, but to then have to graft on a brand new nose and have to re-test all over again doesn't make much sense. All what the team have learnt about aero maps - setups - tyre wear they would have to throw away.

Renault think this is the way forward, and are developing the car in this direction.

[vyselegend]

Again another strang pic of the R29, I first thought the flap was the fuel trap, but there are two of them (symetrically), and they are quite big. Question: Do you think these are the openable cooling traps, or some quick acces to the KERS? Note that there is a duct entering there.

Appart from that nothing exceptional, but I found it strange for a F1 car to feature workable traps like air fighters, because we are used to see the whole engine cover being removed at once, whatever the need is...

[Shaddock]

Again another strang pic of the R29, I first thought the flap was the fuel trap, but there are two of them (symetrically), and they are quite big. Question: Do you think these are the openable cooling traps, or some quick acces to the KERS? Note that there is a duct entering there.

Appart from that nothing exceptional, but I found it strange for a F1 car to feature workable traps like air fighters, because we are used to see the whole engine cover being removed at once, whatever the need is...

It looks like the bodywork around the exhausts. Maybe its so tightly packaged that without airflow temperatures will rise and it will catch fire (similar to the brakes).

[Mitsuhirato]

Looks like there is a cable coming out of one. Could be to transfer the electric energy stored in the KERS system, like "unloading" the car. Just a wild guess. It seems to be located a bit ahead of the exhaust.