R29 is the lightest Renault ever - Symonds
Despite the setbacks that Renault seems to experience in recent testing, there are several signals that indicate Renault's belief in the new design. Pat Symonds has now confirmed to auto-motor-und-sport that the new R29 is the lightest Formula One car the team has ever built.
Pat Symonds, Renault engineering director said: "We have traditionally built cars that were fairly heavy. In order to reduce the weight, we had to redefine the standards on the strength requirements of the car's structural components."
It is estimated that the team can currently move 60 kg of ballast in the car when KERS is not fitted (which is generally expected to be around 30kg).
A specialist team is currently on hand trying to find out if some of the testing problems are or aerodynamic or mechanical nature so that the engineers can work to resolve them.
