(Renault Sport F1)
Renault Sport head into this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps as both the winners of the previous Grand Prix at the Hungaroring with Daniel Ricciardo taking victory for Infiniti Red Bull Racing and also the defending Belgian Grand Prix race winners as Sebastian Vettel took victory here last season for Red Bull.
It was a difficult day for the reigning world champion as he was forced to sit out the second free practice as the team changed his engine however this was a planned engine change and as a result the German will not face a grid penalty for Sunday's race.
The Spa Francorchamps circuit is one of the hardest challenge for the power unit with the less power output due to the high attitude of the circuit and as a result there is extra pressure put on key components of the power unit. Last season driver's were taking the legendary Eau Rouge flat-out however this season due to the greater levels of torque driver's find themselves lifting as they go through the iconic turn.
One Renault powered outfit have seen a driver change this weekend with World Endurance championship driver and reigning LeMans champion Andre Lotterer coming into the Caterham F1 Team to replace Kamui Kobayshi who is back at the team's factory in Leafield this weekend. The German revealed it felt strange not taking Eau Rouge flat out in an F1 car while he did just that with his Audi in the WEC.
Renault Sport F1's head of track operations Remii Taffin was happy with the progress made by Infiniti Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat who set the seventh fastest time of the day and ended the running as the fastest Renault powered driver. Taffin stated:
'The long run pace across Red Bull and Toro Rosso is positive but we have some work to improve performance over one lap.’
Spa definitely lived up to its reputation today as the hardest circuit of the year for the Power Units. Every part of the PU is given a workout thanks to the flowing, high speed corners, gradient changes and aggressive stops. It certainly gives a long job list after practice!
That said, we’ve learned a lot over the two sessions. The long run pace across Red Bull and Toro Rosso is positive but we have some work to improve performance over one lap. We have some margin to optimize the energy management and torque delivery but getting to grips with this is part of a usual Friday practice. Since we covered 250km with Daniel we got the bulk of the information we require to maximize performance, but clearly tomorrow will be a very busy day as we lost the second session for Sebastian after an ignition problem at the end of FP1.
On inspection we needed to change the PU for a new unit so we do not expect a repeat of the problem.
It’s also been very interesting to work with a new driver in Andre Lotterer at Caterham. He brought a fresh and unique perspective to the team thanks to his extensive experience at Spa and delivered some excellent feedback. He was straight on the pace as well so we could run through our programme as expected. Lotus had a harder day with Pastor missing FP2, but Romain’s performance and reliability is optimistic and the rain coming tomorrow could shake the order up a bit.
Overall, although we’ve had some setbacks there is a lot of potential for improvement and we’ll be ready to take advantage of any chances that come our way.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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