Renault may quit Formula One over new cheating claim

Nelson Piquet Jr has been accused of crashing his car in the 2008 Singapore race to help team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The FIA examination of last year's Singapore grand prix could lead to Renault quitting Formula One if their team is found guilty of interfering with the result of the floodlit race's inaugural running.

Although not mentioning Renault by name, the sport's governing body is likely to take a closer look at the race following the acquisition of fresh evidence. During the broadcast of Sunday's Belgian grand prix, the Brazilian network Globo TV reportedly said it had received information that Nelson Piquet Jr had been asked to crash on purpose and trigger the sequence of events that led to his team‑mate, Fernando Alonso, moving from the back to the front of the field and scoring a win that went against form in the previous 14 races. A spokeswoman for the ING Renault F1 Team said today that there would be no comment.
Renault have been at the forefront of rumours that they would be the next to pull out of F1 following the withdrawal of Honda and BMW. The French manufacturer was considering quitting last year but Alonso's win in Singapore, and victory at the next race in Japan, secured the team's short-term future. Renault's best finish this year has been fifth place in Spain, an unsatisfactory result that could accelerate the decision to pull out should an inquiry find against the British-based team. If the FIA feels there is a case to answer, Renault could be called before the World Motor Sport Council and, if found guilty, face a heavy fine or even expulsion.

When Piquet crashed on the 14th of 61 laps and sprayed debris across the track, the incident prompted the appearance of the safety car and caused every team bar Renault to immediately rethink their pit-stop strategy. A period of slow laps behind the safety car is the ideal time to refuel without losing an excessive amount of time. Renault were the exception because Alonso had refuelled three laps before Piquet's crash and rejoined at the back of the field. As the 18 cars running ahead of the former world champion made their pit stops, Alonso moved to the front.
The question is: was Piquet ordered to crash or was the accident a handy coincidence for a team under pressure to score their first win of 2008? If it was the former, then Piquet was either incompetent or extremely brave. The heavy collision with the concrete wall lining the street circuit destroyed the right-hand side of the Renault and risked injury. Had Piquet wished to prompt the safety car, it would only have required a slightly more dramatic version of the incident employed by Michael Schumacher in 2005 when he parked his Ferrari against the barrier in Monte Carlo and hampered the progress of rivals during the closing minutes of qualifying. Schumacher was demoted to the back of the grid. A spokesmen for Piquet said he would be making no comment.

The investigation comes less than two weeks after an angry Piquet referred to Flavio Briatore as his "executioner" after being sacked by the boss of Renault F1 and replaced by the Frenchman Romain Grosjean. Ferrari were accused of interfering with the result of the 2002 Austrian grand prix when Rubens Barrichello was ordered to move over in the final 100 metres and allow Schumacher to win. Ferrari were not reprimanded but the FIA banned team orders. The Singapore incident, if deliberate, is much more serious due to the risk of debris injuring other drivers and, possibly, spectators.

Nurburgring - The Complete Guide to German GP

The Nurburgring has a reputation for being a 'complete' circuit in the sense that it includes a wide variety of corners. There are high-speed sections, medium-speed chicanes, and some very slow corners with high traction demands. The cars will have to meet all of these challenges this weekend. Overtaking is difficult but possible into the first corner and the chicane at Turns 13 and 14. However, the weather is a constant concern and no matter what the season, rain and cool conditions are an ever-present threat in the Eifel mountains. Renault explain how they plan to tweak their R29 for the German Grand Prix…

Aerodynamics

The Nurburgring demands some of the highest downforce levels of the season, not only for the numerous high and medium-speed corners, but also to maintain good stability under heavy braking for the first corner and the slow chicane of Turns 13 and 14.As Renault driver Fernando Alonso explains: "The left-right chicane of Turns 13 and 14 is probably the best overtaking opportunity as it's one of the biggest braking zones of the lap. If you are following another car closely, you can pick up a good slipstream on the approach and make a lunge down the inside. We take it at about 100 km/h in second gear and you need to be aggressive with the curbs to straight-line the chicane as much as possible and carry speed through the corner."

Chassis balance

Corners such as Turns Five/Six, Eight/Nine and 10/11 in particular demand a neutral handling balance to avoid compromising the optimum line through the second corner in the sequence, and the engineers will often work through the weekend to dial out understeer in the medium-speed corners.A quick, responsive change of direction is required in both the slow-speed section at the start of the lap, and through the quicker corners. Mechanical grip is particularly important through Turns One to Four, but cannot be achieved at the expense of aerodynamic performance around the rest of the lap.

Alonso explains: "The run through Turns One to Four is not very exciting for the drivers, but we spend a lot of time in them and that means that any mistake is likely to be very costly, especially in qualifying. We need to be precise with our braking and keep the car under control all the time as too much understeer, oversteer or a missed apex will put you out of shape for the following corners. The car balance is never perfect at such low speeds either, so we are always fighting understeer in the very slow corners, and a nervous rear end when we accelerate away."

Tyres

Tyre performance will, as always, be a critical performance parameter for all teams this weekend with Bridgestone providing the super-soft and medium compounds from its 2009 range. Ambient conditions will play a role in determining which compound is the preferred tyre for the race as we often experience cool temperatures at the Nurburgring.

Brakes

Wear on the brakes is not a major concern. None of the braking zones are particularly severe and there is no reason to think that wear levels on the discs and pads should be abnormally high as a result.

Engine

The Nurburgring is not a circuit that presents the engines with any extreme challenges, and its overall impact is further reduced by the fact that the circuit is situated at altitude, some 500m above sea level. This has the effect of reducing engine power by approximately five percent, while also reducing loads on certain engine components such as the pistons.The engine is at full throttle for just over 64 percent of the lap - a value slightly above the season average of approximately 62 percent. The longest single period at full throttle barely exceeds ten seconds, so the main challenge for the engine team is ensuring strong performance from low revs so the engine launches well out of the slow corners, particularly Turn Seven which leads onto the uphill drag to Turn 10.

As Nelson Piquet explains: "We approach Turn Seven downhill in seventh gear at almost 300km/h before braking and downshifting to third for the hairpin. It's really important to stay online and hit the apex through this corner so that you can apply the throttle early on the exit to carry as much speed on the long drag back up the hill towards the high-speed chicane of Turns Eight and Nine."The circuit includes a number of elevation changes, but none are sudden enough to cause the engine systems any concern. The only note of caution is finding the best line through some of the bumpier corners, and particularly the chicane, to avoid spending too much time on the rev limiter, which is potentially damaging for the engine.

Source : www.formula1.com

Brazil - The Final Showdown

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa go head-to-head in the world championship title decider in Brazil this weekend, and it is still impossible to predict who will triumph.

The odds favour the Englishman, who has a seven-point lead after winning last time out in China. However, that was what he had over rival Kimi Raikkonen coming into this race last year, and still it all went awry at the 11th hour.Technically, Hamilton needs only finish fifth even if Massa wins, in order to beat him by a single point. However, there is an additional complication as McLaren are still fighting Ferrari for the constructors’ championship, in which the red team have 156 points to the silver’s 145. BMW Sauber are third, but out of the overall reckoning now, on 135. McLaren thus have to push hard and need a one-two finish to have any realistic chance of securing both titles, whereas a third and eighth would secure the constructors’ crown (but not the drivers’) for Ferrari.

"I don’t need to win the race, but that won’t stop me from going into the weekend looking to be as strong as possible," says Hamilton, who will benefit from a new rear wing on his MP4-23. "Shanghai was a good example of that: we hit the ground running on Friday morning and never looked back. Our aim wasn’t to push too hard, but we found ourselves in a position at the front and took it comfortably from there. That’s what I am hoping to achieve in Brazil - a straightforward weekend that allows me to just focus on my car and my driving.

"Ferrari have been dominant in Interlagos for the past two years, when Massa and Raikkonen respectively won. If it is dry that may remain the case, though the signs are that McLaren have made good progress in the latter part of the season. If it rains, however, as is forecast, the odds surely favour Hamilton even more given his wet-weather form in Monaco and Silverstone, where the Ferraris struggled.Massa has been keeping his cool and says that the pressure is off him because of Hamilton’s lead.

He must win with Hamilton either scoring sixth or lower or failing to finish at all. In this respect he may be helped by the Englishman’s need to run his engine for a second time after China."Yes it's true I have a tougher job than Lewis in terms of the points situation, but my own objective for the weekend is much more straightforward than his," the Brazilian said. "I only have to focus on winning the race, hopefully with my team-mate second. The only thing I am thinking about is winning. After that, the matter is not in my hands and we will have to wait and see exactly what and how much we have won."For sure, Lewis will try and put pressure on me, but I have zero pressure, because I have nothing to lose.

In the second McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen must play a key role this weekend in support of his team mate, for Raikkonen will undoubtedly back Massa strongly. The Hungarian Grand Prix winner will have a fresh Mercedes engine in his McLaren. "I want to be able to help the team and Lewis wherever necessary," he says, "but the easiest way to do that is to be running at the front. The team knows I will play my part, but we are also targeting the constructors’ championship."While the fight for the crown will inevitably grab all the headlines, there are plenty of other things to be resolved this weekend. There is still a mighty scrap for third place in the drivers' championship between Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen, who have 75 and 69 points respectively. And Nick Heidfeld’s fifth place on 60 could prove vulnerable if Fernando Alonso wins again for the improving Renault team. The Spaniard has 53 points, but may himself fall victim to Kovalainen who has 51.

Elsewhere, Sebastian Vettel and Jarno Trulli are battling for eighth with 30 points apiece.Besides the Ferrari-McLaren fight for constructors’ honours, BMW Sauber could still snaffle second from McLaren. Renault are safe in fourth and Toyota fifth, but there is a big fight between Toro Rosso (34), Red Bull Racing (29) and Williams (26) for sixth.

The race will also be notable as David Coulthard’s last. At the same time, venerable race engineer Steve Hallam is also on the last lap as he will be leaving Formula One for NASCAR for 2009.

From a technical perspective, Interlagos poses two main challenges to the teams. It is 800 metres above sea level, so engine power is reduced as a result of the drop in atmospheric pressure. That also has a negative effect on aerodynamic performance.

The other problem has traditionally been the bumpy surface, though a complete resurface for 2007 caught teams by surprise since the tarmac was relatively smooth. However, some bumps remain, particularly in the braking area for Turn 4, Descida do Lago. To avoid bottoming out on these, cars have to run with increased ride heights, which reduces the effectiveness of their diffusers.There are two favoured overtaking points. The first is going into the S do Senna at the start of the lap after a driver has been able to get a good slipstreaming run up the hill from the vitally important final corner, Juncao or Turn 12. The second is under braking for the Descida do Lago left-hander at the end of the back straight.This year Bridgestone are bringing their medium and soft compound tyres after discovering last year that their super-soft was not quite durable enough to suit the track’s unusual characteristics. They are expecting a lot of graining early on thanks to the twisty infield section, and the initial ‘greenness’ of the track before it cleans up and rubbers in.

Renault launches new R28 car for F1 season

Even Renault agrees: its 2007 Formula One car was a lemon.

The French team hopes that will change this year with the return of two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso and its new R28 car that it launched Thursday.

Alonso is happy to be back with Renault after a turbulent season with McLaren, but conceded they will mostly be chasing podium places as it will be difficult to close the gap on Ferrari and McLaren.

"We have to be realistic," the Spaniard said. "If we can win races, that will be a dream come true."

Renault won back-to-back drivers' championships with Alonso in 2005 and '06, but technical director Bob Bell said it was obvious early that the 2007 car was poor so they focused on the 2008 version.
"Our car was pretty much undriveable," Renault team managing director Flavio Briatore said.

Alonso said testing on the new car had been on ensuring it was free of design faults, and that the focus will be on performance in February before the March 16 start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix.

"We need to recover a gap of maybe one second," Alonso said. "Step by step, we really hope to close the gap."

Bell said Alonso had provided "invaluable" input as they fine-tune the new model.

Briatore didn't want to be drawn on Alonso's troubled year at McLaren, saying it wasn't his business, but described the Spaniard as "more mature" than in the past and "very focused."

McLaren released Alonso one year into a three-year deal due to feuds with teammate Lewis Hamilton.

"He's come home," Briatore said of Alonso. "To have him back is fantastic."

Renault No. 2 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. said the team can win the drivers' championship again.

"If they did it once, they can do it again," Piquet said.

Renault chairman Carlos Ghosn turned up at the ING Renault F1 launch in Paris and said that he hoped that the team would do better in 2008 than it did last year. Quoting team principal Flavio Briatore, Ghosn said that the 2007 season had been "a disaster" but added that the team still finished third in the Constructors' Championship, an assessment based on the fact that McLaren was excluded rather than on track performance.

"There are two places in front of that," Ghosn said. "And I have a preference as to which one I want to see."

Ghosn said that the 2008 is going to be an important year for Renault with a lot of new products and he wants F1 to contribute as much as possible to boosting Renault sales.

Briatore said that he is hoping for wins and podiums - and expects to see them.

The engineers say that the problems of 2007 have been fully understood and fixed and that it is their ambition to get back into the hunt for the World Championship.

"We are confident that we are now back on track," said Bob Bell, the Renault technical director. "We have a very aggressive development programme for this year. Fernando Alonso drove the 2007 car recently and said it was a nice car to drive, but it did not have the grip of its rivals. We knew that we had a good product but we simply had a problem with the aerodynamics. It was to do with methodologies and so we had to look not only at the problem itself but also at what was causing it and why we did not discover it earlier."

A bit of History...Williams F1 Team

Williams F1 is one of the world's leading Formula One teams. Formed in 1977 by Frank Williams and Patrick Head, the company has secured 16 FIA Formula One World Championship titles. Nine of these titles have been won in the Constructors' Championship in association with Cosworth, Honda and Renault. The remaining seven titles are Drivers' Championships, won with Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

Today Williams F1 employs around 520 personnel at a 40ha technology campus based in the heart of the UK's 'Motorsport Valley' in rural Oxfordshire. The company's core competencies are the design and manufacture of Formula One race cars, and the deployment of this expertise in running the team's entries into the Grand Prix each season.

Away from the race track, Williams F1 has grown into a significant international business over a quarter of a century, and its achievements earned its founder, Frank Williams, a knighthood in the 1999 New Year's Honours List to augment France's highest decoration, the Legion d'Honneur. Corporately, Williams F1 has also been awarded two Queen's Awards for Export Achievement, and is today recognised as one of the most enduring and successful organisations in global sport.

The company's business model is relatively unique. Williams F1 is one of the very few wholly independent Formula One teams that exists purely to race. Its income is largely derived from sponsorship. Supplementing this are a number of secondary income streams, including an international business and conferencing facility at the company's Grove HQ, with an extensive interactive museum tracing thirty years of success in Formula One.