Formula One news
Renault to test with weakened V10s
24 November 2005As Renault's V8 engine will not be ready before 2006, the team will test with detuned, weakened V10 engines until the end of the year, technical director Bob Bell has revealed.
"We will be running the R25 with V10 engines that are suitably detuned to represent the power levels of the V8 engine," he said. "This will give the drivers a feel for next year's engine performance, and allow us to simulate the 2006 tyre energy levels in order to advance with development. It is a cost-effective solution that will allow us work from a well-known, reliable chassis baseline."
"From our point of view, we have taken a pragmatic decision not to run an interim car, based on the potential return on investment involved in this type of project," he added. "Firstly, there is a question of timing: to gain real advantage from an interim car, it would need to have been running very early, but to achieve this would have been using an interim 'V8' rather than a definitive design. Secondly, there is the question of interchangeability: we are changing engine 'V' angle from 72° to 90° next year, so an interim car would have required a large commitment of resources to produce a relatively unrepresentative chassis. For any team, the decision to produce an interim car is not without consequences - it demands manpower, money and a lot of other resources. Within the timing, budgetary and human constraints of our 2006 project, the return on investment would have been low."
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