Malaysian GP 2006: Monday Morning Debrief
A bat on the podium, going round the world thirteen
times – and the secrets of number 3873.
‘Bat'-man hits the top step
One of the nicest traditions that is slowly evolving in the
Renault F1 Team, is Flavio's habit of sending unfamiliar faces
to the podium to collect the trophy on behalf of the team
– a gesture that reminds all 800 team members of their
contribution to our success.
On Sunday in Sepang, it was the turn of Giancarlo's race
engineer Alan Permane to take to the podium and collect the
trophy for Winning Constructor. Of course, this is F1, so
asking for ‘Alan' in the Renault garage won't get you
very far. You need to be looking for ‘Bat' and everybody
knows who you mean. Why ‘Bat'? Well, when he started
at the team, he worked such long hours that they were convinced
he only came out at night!
So what did it feel like to be representing the team? "What
a feeling!" enthused Bat afterwards. "During the
last lap, Flavio came on the radio and old me I would be going
up if Fisi won. It was a great feeling – to see the
team down below, the anthems, the trophies, and then the drivers
soaking me in champagne… Fisi did a fantastic job today,
and it's brilliant to see him bounce back like this. He will
be dying to get to Melbourne, and I know he's going to be
a force to be reckoned with."
Number 3873
It sounds like a prison number, or something of the sort –
a bit like ‘24601' and Jean Valjean in Les Misérables!
In reality, though, 3873 is a very special code-name at Renault.
For this is the identity of the RS26 V8 engine that ran the
Malaysian Grand Prix in Fernando's car, and has therefore
made an exceptionally successful debut under the new V8 regulations
after its maiden victory in Bahrain last weekend. Out of a
possible twenty points, this engine has scored 18 –
a 90% success rate. Its sister unit in Giancarlo's car, has
also made the best possible start to its life with a race
win – and with another round of the championship to
come. Renault's was the last V10 to win under the old engine
regulations, and now that engine 3873 has completed its second
race distance, we can legitimately say we are the first winners
of the V8 era too.
So what does Rob White, Viry's Technical Director, make of
the achievement? "We were pleased to win the first race
of the new rules cycle in Bahrain last week. But our satisfaction
was tempered by the DNF suffered by Giancarlo, especially
because it was caused by a minor problem that had escaped
out otherwise meticulous preparations. To see last week's
winning engine on the podium for a second time, and for Giancarlo
to get the result he deserved from his V8, was a great moment.
Everybody at Viry and Enstone deserves to share in that feeling
of achievement."
How many times round the world?
During 2005, the Renault F1 Team completed some 50,000 km
of testing from January to December. That's nothing compared
to the 520,000 km that had been racked up on the clock of
one our engineers' rental minibus this weekend in KL! But
the number is important because the 2006 total testing mileage
so far stands at just over 15,000 km since the beginning of
the calendar year, and we will be adding yet more to it this
week, as Heikki Kovalainen puts chassis R26-04 through its
paces for three days in Le Castellet, from 22 – 24 March.
As is becoming clear after two races, the 2006 World Championship
is destined to be closely fought by up to four teams, and
that means two factors will be crucial: reliability, and development,
as the team's technical chiefs explain.
"Our race in Malaysia hit all our predictions very precisely,"
explained Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds. "But
there were some factors that made it easier as well. The first
was the fact that Fernando eradicated much of his qualifying
disadvantage in the opening corner, as he went from seventh
to third. And secondly, Raikkonen's first-lap retirement removed
one of the major threats to our success. Nobody in the team
is resting on their laurels, and we know we have a fight on
our hands. There were half a dozen new components on the car
for this race, and there will be more aero developments for
Melbourne in two weeks' time. We are pushing flat out to continue
improving our level of performance."
For the engine team, taking nothing for granted is also standard
operating procedure. "The work to achieve racing reliability
is a key, integral element of our performance development
process," explained Rob White. "The natural consequence
is that your work on reliability is never finished, and with
every new development, the target remains the same: zero-defect
performance. Being reliable is not enough, you need to be
quick and reliable, and as we improve the engine, we will
be constantly fine-tuning the critical balance between performance
and reliability."
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