Renault: More speed to come
Date published : 10 Sep 2010 - 17:46:09
Renault's chief engineer Alan Permane is confident the Anglo-French squad will find more performance once it has pored over the data it gathered on a busy Friday at Monza.Fresh from his podium finish at Spa, Robert Kubica was fourth fastest in the morning session but slipped to eighth in the afternoon, 0.9s off the pace set by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.The team used its F-duct in both sessions but Permane said it now needed to think carefully about what set-up route to pursue.On Robert's car this afternoon we tried using different downforce levels, and we must evaluate the results before making our decision on the ultimate configuration we will run tomorrow, said Permane.We also monitored what other teams were doing, and saw some running with and without the F-duct, which is something that we will have to take into account.But the decision will be driven by our own data.Renault has a significant horsepower deficit to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, and Permane admitted the team's choice of wing level therefore had to be finely judged.We have to keep an eye on our top speeds much more here than at other circuits, to ensure we are competitive with the quickest cars on the straights, he said.In terms of performance, Vitaly lost running time because of a brake problem at the end of the session, while Robert had traffic on his fastest laps.I am confident that there's more performance to come tomorrow.Commenting on the effect of using an F-duct at such a high-speed track, Kubica said: Monza is an unusual circuit because of the aero levels we run and also the feeling for the drivers.We have to get used to the car with low downforce although using the F-duct means that the change is not as extreme as in the past, because we can run with more wing.It's still difficult to get the braking points and also to use the kerbs in the right way, especially because they have been changed so we are not able to jump over them as much as before.Overall, we seem to be in our normal position, but we need to analyse the data tonight to see the areas in which we can improve.Team-mate Vitaly Petrov, who was 13th in both sessions, said he was still adjusting to driving a more skittish car in Monza trim.Today went okay for me, but it was a learning day to get used to the lower downforce levels we use here in Monza, which make the car quite interesting to drive, said the rookie.You can feel the car moving a lot more, so you have to be very precise with your driving and not make any small mistakes.Unfortunately, I lost the final part of the second session because of a problem with the brakes, but overall the car was running well.We still need to find a few tenths to get inside the top 10 because the gaps are very small here, but I am sure we can make some good improvements overnight.
