Renault abandons its new package for the rest of the weekend
After a first lackluster day on the Marina Bay circuit, the Lotus Renault Grand Prix team decided to remove the planned developments for the R31 for this weekend. A wise decision according to the staff members, but one that could cost positions during the race.
Following a first free practice session deemed rather disappointing by the English team, the members decided to revert to the old configuration for Vitaly Petrov’s car, and this until the end of the Grand Prix. Significant developments were indeed planned by the engineers for Singapore in order to continue making progress.
Unfortunately, the updates had the opposite effect as they caused a lot of issues for the Russian driver Vitaly Petrov: « We are, of course, very disappointed with our performances in free practice. Vitaly experienced an unexpected problem with the new package, which led to a malfunction of the radiators, and thus an overheating of the engine. It is for this reason that we quickly decided to revert to the old configuration, so as not to lose time for the second session », stated James Allison.
However, the technical director of Renault was relatively optimistic for the rest of the weekend: « Our strong point on this track is grip. So all is not lost! Furthermore, the whole team will work very hard to identify Friday’s problems, improve developments, and provide the best car for our drivers by the next Grand Prix. »
Note that the second driver, Bruno Senna, retained the old configuration this weekend. He will therefore not have to worry about his teammate’s problems.
