2011 British Grand Prix: The effects of Blown Diffuser shaking Renault GP to change – Formula 1
The ninth round of the 2011 Formula 1 season concluded in Silverstone where as expected Renault GP suffered heavily from the Blown Diffuser clampdown.
It was believed that the ban on the off throttle Blown Diffuser imposed by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) will have its worst impact on the Renault team who designed their car around it.
Bad luck for Renault, the assumptions were spot on and the black and gold livery car suffered the entire Silverstone weekend.
Renault had an innovative exhaust valve design which blows the air from the side of the car rather than the back. Many Formula 1 analysts and technical directors admired Renault’s design and some of the midfield teams copied the exhaust to get maximum results.
The pre-season testing session showed some good results for the Renault team as they were catching up fast on the top ranked teams before the start of the season.
As the season started, Renault jumped to claim two back to back podiums to mark their presence on the Formula 1 arena. However soon after the first two races, podium finishes for Renault dried out but some handsome point scoring finishes from both of their
drivers kept on coming which saw them claiming the fourth position in constructors’ table, ahead of Mercedes GP.
However, as the Silverstone Grand Prix unfolded on Friday, Renault’s performance graph took a dip. Right from the practice session, it was evident that Renault will face downforce issues in the race and because rain interrupted almost the entire weekend,
the affects of the ban were devastating.
In the qualifiers, Renault duo Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld failed to make it into Q3 and finished as high as 14th and 16th respectively.
As the race started on wet conditions, the Renault cars were slower than the midfield cars and were easily overtaken by many cars in the first half of the race. Although Heidfeld managed to finish the race among points, still the team realised that the diffuser
has severely dented their performance in the race.
Renault struggled on the wet track but gained some momentum on the dry track which was still not enough to compete against the Mercedes team.
For the first eight races of the season, Renault were the fourth team on the points table which was a huge achievement for them, as team principal Eric Boullier had said. But just after the ninth event of the 2011 season, the team is down to fifth place
where they were in the 2010 season as well.
Just after the first event of the 2011 season without the Blown Diffuser, Renault have decided to drop the forward exhaust and will go for the traditional backward flow exhaust used by all Formula 1 teams.
Although Renault are expected to recover from the loss of Blown Diffuser, it will be tough for them to fight with the Mercedes team who just had an impressive effect of the Diffuser on their cars.
Renault have some cushion from the sixth team on the points table and probably they will finish fifth in the 2011 season.
Nevertheless, ten races are still to be contested and things change pretty fast in Formula 1. Let’s see how the last ten races turn out for the Renault team.
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