The Mild Seven Renault F1 Team completed a successful opening day in Bahrain. Both drivers completed their programmes without incident, and the team will now work through the evening to make their tyre choice for the rest of the race weekend.

Fernando Alonso, 2nd position, 1:31.969, 24 laps
“I have no worries after the opening day: the car balance was pretty good, and we seemed quite quick. However, we must be cautious with our choices here: we have only raced at this track once, and the conditions on Friday are very different to those we will meet in the Grand Prix. The circuit today was still quite low grip, but it should improve through the rest of the weekend.”

Giancarlo Fisichella, 7th position, 1:32.708, 24 laps
“My day went quite well: there is still work to do on the balance, because the car had some oversteer during the sessions today, but the other aspects of the handling seem to be working well. It was hot out there on track, but now we have come through Malaysia, I don’t think the conditions will be a problem for the drivers in the race.”

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
“Our programmes both ran very smoothly today, which means we have good quality data to work with this evening. We completed more laps than usual in order to get a better handle on the tyre choice, which should help us with our analysis. The car balance was reasonable straight away today but, as always, we still have some room for improvement before tomorrow.”

Friday Focus - Innovation brings performance for Renault F1 Team

The Renault F1 Team may enter the Bahraini Grand Prix on Sunday as championship leaders, but nothing is being taken for granted. Following problems for both drivers with their drinks bottle systems in Malaysia, the team has reacted quickly to solve the problem.

“We are constantly working to optimise our drivers’ performance,” explained Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds, “and that means we try to make their cockpit environment as comfortable as possible to ensure they can perform at their maximum. As soon as we understood the problems the drivers had experienced in Malaysia, we knew we had to find a better solution for the hot, demanding conditions in Bahrain.”

On Monday immediately after the Malaysian race, the drawing office at Enstone was hard at work on designing a new system, and this was ready for testing later in the week at Paul Ricard. Having been approved during three days’ hard running, they made their debut today at Sakhir in Bahrain.

“Renault’s road car operations bring us technical support in many significant areas, and this is a further examples of the inspirations we have found,” continued Pat Symonds. “Of course, we have adapted their use to Formula One needs, but our new carbon-fibre cup holders represent another concrete link between everyday motorists and the best racing drivers in the world.

“Furthermore, we have actually found these new devices bring performance benefits,” revealed Symonds. “By mounting the cup holders lower in the cockpit, we have lowered the centre of gravity such that our simulations indicate a net gain of several tenths of a second over a race distance in Bahrain. Come qualifying or the race, that could make all the difference…”

In F1, details count; the development of this foolproof system for April’s first race is another example of how the teams’ constant quest for fractions of a second can bring unique, innovative ideas to light…

2005 Bahrain Grand Prix - Main Page
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