Renault has a big challenge on its hands to extract more performance from its technical package and get on terms with Formula 1’s current pace-setters before the start of the season.
That is the frank admission of the world champion squad’s engineering director Pat Symonds, following another low-key showing by the team in the latest F1 group test at Barcelona this week.
“We are realistic enough to know we need to find more speed,” Symonds said in an interview conducted by Renault’s press office.
“We are not worried, but when you are not on top of the pile, then you have to be honest enough to admit it – and knuckle down to try and find the speed.
“From what we have seen so far, we seem to be several tenths [of a second] away from the fastest runners in most conditions – on the first lap, and the long runs too.
“We know what we want to do to find the performance: we need to start getting the most out of the tyres, and push even harder on all our traditional development paths.
“And we are working bloody hard at it.”
Symonds acknowledged that Renault has not yet learned how to extract the best from the 2007-spec Bridgestone tyres, as it copes with the transition to a new manufacturer and harder compounds.
“Back in November, we said that our objective was to learn our lessons by the time we reached Melbourne,” he said.
“We are not in Australia yet, and we haven’t learned all our lessons either!
“I think we are in a good position in terms of tyre degradation, but we have not yet unlocked the secret of getting performance out of the tyres on the first lap.”
The more restrictive tyre allocations in force this year have made Renault’s task of finding the missing speed that much harder.
“Ideally, you would throw lots of sets of new tyres at the problem – but under the new tyre allocations for testing, that’s not really an option,” Symonds explained.
“This is all part of the learning process you go through when you change tyre supplier, and we are discussing the matter with Bridgestone, and learning with them as well.”
Nonetheless, Symonds is confident that the fundamentals of the R27 are sound, and that in some respects it is already a better car than its title-winning predecessor.
“Some of the changes to the regulations for this season have made things inherently more difficult for the drivers,” he said.
“For example, the new tyres intentionally have less grip, and that makes life tricky for them.
“The feedback about the R27 has been positive though.
“It is more stable than its predecessor in high-speed corners, and we are improving the balance with each test.”
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