F1 07 review: Renault

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The world champions of the last two years had a dismal 2007. They failed to score a single win, never started from the front row, and it took until the 15th round for them to score their first podium.

Why did it all go so badly wrong for Renault?

Drivers

Fernando Alonso’s fans pointed to the departure of the Spaniard from Renault to explain why the team did so poorly in 2008 – unlike his new team McLaren.

But the destabilising effect of losing their two-time champion is likely to be only part of the story.

His replacement, Heikki Kovalainen, had a dismal, error-strewn debut at Melbourne.It took several races for him to find his feet, but after that he was more often than not ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Kovalainen passed Fisichella in the drivers’ standings and ended the season ahead of his team mate. This was aided by Kovalainen giving the team their only podium of the year at Fuji.

That performance justly won him admiration, for he was driving a car more inclined towards dry weather than the heavy rain at Fuji, yet he skilfully kept Kimi Raikkonen at bay to the flag.

Only a crash in the season finale at Interlagos prevented Kovalainen from finishing every race. Fisichella, by comparison, was mediocre all season and seemed unable and uninterested in beating Kovalainen.

Even if Renault can’t win Alonso back from McLaren in Fisichella’s place, dropping the Italian anyway would be a wise move.

Michelin and Bridgestone

Of all the former Michelin teams that struggled to get to grips with the new-for-2007 specification Bridgestone rubber, Renault had the biggest problems.

In the days of the tyre war, Michelin could tailor their products to each individual team, and long-term customers Renault had the most experience of their compounds. The dynamics of the R26 revolved around Alonso’s famous high-energy turn-in to the corners, and the Michelin tyres were attuned to that need.

With Alonso and Bridgestone gone, the R27 was an entirely different challenge.

The 2006 campaign – and 2008

Certainly another cause for Renault’s uncompetitive season was the effort the team poured into retaining both its titles in 2006.

Work on the R27 was prioritised below keeping Alonso’s R26 ahead of Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari.

But this year the team cut their losses early and started serious work on the R28 in August. The last time they began a car that early was in 2004, when they went to work on the title-winning R25.

With Alonso now free of McLaren and Flavio Briatore making moves to bring his prodigal son home, 2008 could be a much more successful season for Renault.

Photo: LAT Photographic / Andrew Ferraro | Charles Coates / LAT Photographic | Steven Tee / LAT Photographic

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “F1 07 review: Renault”

  1. Sorry, Keith, but you’ve said “The world champions of the last two years had a dismal 2008.” in the first sentence. I think you meant 2007.

  2. This is bizarre I made the same mistake on another article earlier today. I’m getting ahead of myself! Fixed now.

  3. Mind you, Renault probably want 2007 to be over as soon as possible, so the error was rather apt. Thanks for fixing the error so quickly.

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