Renault completes successful Roadshow at Dubai
The ING Renault F1 Team completed a successful Roadshow in Dubai this weekend as race driver Nelson Piquet led the demonstrations along with third driver Romain Grosjean and demo driver Adam Khan. Entering its seventh year, the ING Renault F1 Roadshow kicked off its 2009 campaign with a unique format which saw last year’s Renault F1 car, the R28, demonstrated at various venues across Dubai, including the desert and Dubai Autodrome.
However, the main venue for the spectator events was Downtown Barj Dubai in front of the world’s tallest building with the demonstrations staged on a giant floating platform built on the Dubai Mall lagoon.
The climax of the Roadshow on Sunday saw Nelson Piquet demonstrate the R28 at ‘Ski Dubai’, an indoor ski slope. Fitted with specially-adapted Bridgestone studded snow tyres, Nelson completed a series of donuts in the snow at the bottom of the slope. It took the Bridgestone engineers 16 hours to manually insert all 2,016 studs, but the end result was well worth the effort.
Speaking at the end of the weekend, Nelson Piquet said: “Coming to Dubai has been a great experience and a real success for Renault. We packed a lot into this event and did some unusual things that I hope the fans enjoyed. Driving on the snow in an F1 car is something I never thought I would have the chance to do and it was a lot of fun.”
Romain Grosjean commented: “Dubai is such an amazing city and everyone here has really embraced the Roadshow. For me the highlight was driving through the desert, but the downtown demos were great for the fans as they could get close to the team and the car, which is what the Roadshows are all about.”
Adam Khan, who made his Roadshow debut added: “To come to such an exciting place as Dubai and experience my first Roadshow has been really enjoyable. Seeing everything for the first time and the enthusiasm of the fans has made me realise just how special these events are.”
