Fabrice Lom On The Ongoing Partnership With Red Bull
By Ian Lockwood
February 10 2010
2010 will be the fourth year of the productive partnership between Red Bull Racing and Renault Sport. The current compulsory freeze on engine development will continue for 2010, yet with the calendar expanding from 17 to 19 races, the forthcoming season will bring new challenges for the Renault team working in Viry-Châtillon, France. Fabrice Lom explains why:-
"The engine is homologated which means its specification is fixed, unless the FIA authorises any changes. The engine freeze means we have to gain permission from the FIA for any modifications and disclose full details of the change to them. The principal changes we have made are: countermeasures for reliability problems, minor changes for installation (including suppression of Kers), supplier requirements and cost-containment measures. In addition, the engine had to be validated for use in 2010. We have the same quota of eight engines per car for the entire season, which has increased this year to 19 races from 17, so, on average, the engines must do more km. The cars will also be quicker in 2010 than in 2009, so the duty cycle on the engine will be increased. Refuelling is eliminated, so we aim to be able to run lean to reduce fuel consumption for longer during the race."
"We’re often asked what we have done over the winter to overcome our 2009 reliability issues, yet we didn’t wait until the winter to start working on this. As soon as we had the first failure we set about understanding why it had happened, working to prevent it from happening again, although in Formula One you never have the assurance of 100% reliability. The engines are very complicated and we work hard to improve the chance of full reliability.
"I enjoy working with Red Bull Racing and feel very much part of both Renault Sport and Red Bull Racing. We have had some difficult times due to reliability issues and there was a question mark over the engine deal at the end of 2009, but I think the way we managed the situation proved we are a strong team. If you had offered me second in the 2009 Championship at the start of the year, I would have taken it. But, getting so close to the World Championship and then being beaten by another young team makes me much hungrier and in 2010 we will be doing all we can to win."
I was thinking that perhaps the peformance deficit may not yet be a done deal to be fixed.
Reading into Horner's latest comments regarding the FIA, seeming to put pressure on them to reduce the differences, could suggest that Renault need to get some FIA approval to make up ground, which they currently do not have.
It will be interesting to see if this public pressure mounts as we get closer to the first race.
I think I read somewhere that the FIA said no and that the higher powered units will need to do something to come back to the pack....... Everyone knew that this stupid idea of not allowing "any" development of the engines was a croc.
John Racket throw (McEnroe) voice : You Cant Be Serious!
Mark WEBBER 9 hit wonder :-)
Should have been 12 wins except vettel stuffed up
Japan 2007- vettel runs into back of webber during SC ...WTF
Turkey 2010- vettel decides to drive into webber
Malaysia 2013- vettel decides he is just too awesome for team rules
I am a proud Mark Webber Fan
I am also proud that we won the war
I am also a Carlton supporter
I think, therfore i am!
You missed the fun a few hours ago Syd - someone spammed the site and resurrected about 60 old threads with adverts for some rubbish or another. All his posts are deleted now so you can't see them. F1man had just replied to one of his (or her) posts.
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