Renault technical director James Allison describes R31 as a bold failure – Formula 1 news
Renault technical director James Allison has described the current year’s car R31 a bold but a failed experiment.
Renault’s R31 boasted a unique front-exiting exhaust. The blown-diffuser concept was taken to a new level by positioning it at the front of the side pods of the car in order to energise the airflow under the car and increase downforce.
Although the car had success in the earlier stages of the season, with podium finishes at the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix, but since has failed to translate that success into better performances. Renault have gained only two points from their last
five races.
The prominent issue with the car is its lack of traction at slow-speed tracks and has been hard to setup. These factors have led Allison to concede that the concept of the car has been a failure.
“I regard it as a bold, but ultimately failed experiment,” he said. “We were the only team to adopt a forward exhaust layout, and we did so with high hopes, buoyed by very strong wind tunnel numbers.”
“We came out of the blocks adequately well, although it was clear from the first test that the delivered down-force was not as high as we had expected,” he further added. “The layout which had promised so much proved very tricky to develop and had a fundamental
weakness in slow corners that has been an albatross around our neck all year.”
Allison talked about next year’s plans and said that now that the blown diffusers will be banned under the new regulations set for the 2012 season they will be putting in a heavy workload for the winter season.
The new rules stipulate that the exhausts must exit from the top of the engine cover, and so the new car will have to be revamped entirely. There is one more change for next year, which is that all the cars will have to pass the FIA monitored crash tests
before they will be allowed to take part in the pre-season testing. Allison said that this will add more problems to an already heavy workload.
Allison admitted that the intensity of a new car will build steadily to insane levels as January approaches, but was confident that it is like that every year and they always somehow get the job done in time.
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