ING Renault F1 Team announces important technology investments
The ING Renault F1 Team is pleased to announce a $50 million
programme of long-term technology investment, including a
cutting-edge CFD facility to be housed at Enstone.
The ING Renault F1 Team is pleased to announce a major $50
million technology investment programme at its Enstone base
with the full support of the Renault Group. This long-term
programme will include investment in a brand-new Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) facility, which will provide the team
with ten times its current capacity in this area and create
an industry benchmark that will stand among the top 100 global
computing facilities.
Improved simulation in CFD is of direct benefit to the automotive
industry, and Formula 1 has already made a significant contribution
to the development of the technology. This new facility will
enable the development of cutting-edge techniques that can
benefit the design of more efficient road vehicles and power-trains
in the future. Indeed, the applications of CFD stretch far
beyond the wider automotive industry. CFD is a society-relevant
technology, applied in areas as diverse as the design of heart
valves or more fuel-efficient aircraft. Formula 1 has a proven
capacity to adopt and drive the development of new technologies,
and the advances enabled by the work in the CFD centre will
cascade far beyond the world of motor racing.
All new construction work will meet stringent targets for
environmental responsibility, in line with the entire Enstone
site. For example, the new CFD Centre will be sited below
ground level to minimise its impact on the SSSI (Sites of
Special Scientific Interest) that form part of the Enstone
site and will be powered by renewable energy. Environmental
priorities are an on-going development path for the ING Renault
F1 Team, reflected in the fact that the Enstone facility achieved
in 2005, the Kyoto target of a 12.5% reduction in emissions
by 2012.
ING Renault F1 Team Managing Director, Flavio Briatore:
"This programme of technology investment in the team
sends a strong signal about our commitment to a competitive
future in Formula 1. Each investment will be carefully and
efficiently managed in line with the sport's future regulations,
to derive maximum benefit for the team, our partners and the
wider group."
Technical Director, Bob Bell: "We are
delighted to announce the construction of the new Enstone
CFD Centre. While other teams have invested in costly second
wind tunnels, we believe that CFD is a technology of the future
that will be integral to the design and development of more
efficient vehicles. This new centre will allow us to push
the existing technological boundaries, and to develop new
techniques and skills that will have applications far beyond
the race tracks of the future."
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